
fopyright«?Xi£ 



CDEffilGHI DSlPCSm 



A 



GENERAL HISTORY 



^s/o 



FOR 



a 



» 



COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 



BY 



P. V. N. MYERS, A.M., 

Author of "Ancient History," and " Medieval and 
Modern History." 



'J©<00- 




BOSTON, U.S.A.: 

GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 

1889. 



^lu 






Entered at Stationers' Hall. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year i88g, by 

P. V. N. MYERS, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



All Rights Reserved. 



Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 
Presswork by Ginn & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 



/ 



PREFACE. 



THIS volume is based upon my Ancient History and Medieval 
a?td Modern History. In some instances I have changed 
the perspective and the proportions of the narrative ; but in the 
main, the book is constructed upon the same Hues as those drawn 
for the earher works. In deahng with so wide a range of facts, 
and tracing so many historic movements, I cannot hope that I 
have always avoided falling into error. I have, however, taken 
the greatest care to verify statements of fact, and to give the 
latest results of discovery and criticism. 

Considering the very general character of the present work, an 
enumeration of the books that have contributed facts to my 
narration, or have helped to mould my views on this or that 
subject, would hardly be looked for ; yet I wish here to acknowl- 
edge my special indebtedness, in the earlier parts of the history, 
to the works of George Rawlinson, Sayce, Wilkinson, Brugsch, 
Grote, Curtius, Mommsen, Merivale, and Leigh ton ; and in the 
later parts, and on special periods, to the writings of Hodgkin, 
Emerton, Ranke, Freeman, Michaud, Bryce, Symonds, Green 
(J. R.), Motley, Hallam, Thiers, Lecky, Baird, Miiller. 

Several of the colored maps, with which the book will be found 
liberally provided, were engraved especially for my Ancient His- 
tory ; but the larger number are authorized reproductions- of 
charts accompanying Professor Freeman's Historical Geography of 
Europe. The Roman maps were prepared for Professor William 



\ 

iv PREFACE. 

F. Allen's History of Rome, which is to be issued soon, and it 
is to his courtesy that I am indebted for their use. 

The illustrations have been carefully selected with reference to 
their authenticity and historical truthfulness. Many of those in 
the Oriental and Greek part of the work are taken from Oscar 
Jager's Weltgeschichte ; while most of those in the Roman portion 
are from Professor Allen's forthcoming work on Rome, to which I 
have just referred, the author having most generously granted me 
the privilege of using them in my work, notwithstanding it is to 
appear in advance of his. 

Further acknowledgments of indebtedness are also due from 
me to many friends who have aided me with their scholarly sug- 
gestions and criticism. My warmest thanks are particularly due 
to Professor W. F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin ; to Dr. 
E. W. Coy, Principal of Hughes High School, Cincinnati; to Pro- 
fessor William A. Merrill, of Miami University ; and to Mr. D. H. 
Montgomery, author of The Leading Facts of History series. 

P. V. N. M. 

College Hill, Ohio, 
July, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface iii 

List of Maps x 

General Introduction: The Races and their Early Migrations. i 



Part I. 

ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Section I. — The Eastern Nations. 

CHAPTER 

I. India and China. 

1. India 8 

2. China 1 2 

11. Egypt. 

1. Political History i8 

2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture 27 

III. Chald^ea. 

1 . Political History 4c 

2. Arts and General Culture 4^ 

IV. Assyria. 

1. Political History 48 

2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture 52 

V. Babylonia 58 

VI. The Hebrews 63 

VII. The Phoenicians 70 

VIII. The Persian Empire. 

1. Political History • 74 

2. Government, Religion, and Arts 82 

Section II. — Grecian History. 

IX. The Land and the People 87 

X. The Legendary or Heroic Age , 93 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

XI. 
XII. 



XIII. 

XIV. 
XV. 



XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 



XIX. 



XX. 
XXI. 



XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 



PAGE 

Religion of the Greeks loi 

Age of the Tyrants and of Colonization : the Early Growth 
of Sparta and of Athens. 

1. Age of the Tyrants and of Colonization 109 

2. The Growth of Sparta 112 

3. The Growth of Athens ,., 117 

The Grseco-Persian Wars 125 

Period of Athenian Supremacy 136 

The Peloponnesian War : the Spartan and the Theban 

Supremacy. 

1. The Peloponnesian War 147 

2. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy 155 

Period of Macedonian Supremacy: Empire of Alexander. . . 159 

States formed from the Empire of Alexander 170 

Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. 

1. Architecture 176 

2. Sculpture and Painting 182 

Greek Literature. 

1. Epic and Lyric Poetry 190 

2. The Drama and Dramatists 193 

3. History and Historians 196 

4. Oratory 198 

Greek Philosophy and Science 203 

Social Life of the Greeks 215 

Section III. — Roman History. 

The Roman Kingdom 222 

The Early Roman Republic : Conquest of Italy 232 

The First Punic War 247 

The Second Punic War 254 

The Third Punic War 267 

The Last Century of the Roman Republic 273 

The Last Century of the Roman Republic {concluded^ 285 

The Roman Empire (from 31 B.C. to a.d, 180) 305 

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 

180-476) 324 

Roman Civilization. 

1 . Architecture 350 

2. Literature, Philosophy, and Law 354 

3. Social Life 359 



CONTENTS. 



Vll 



Part II. 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



PAGE 
366 



Section I. — Medieval History. 

FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

(From the Fall of Rome, a.d. 476, to the Eleventh Century.) 

CHAPTER 

XXXII. Migrations and Settlements of the Teutonic Tribes...... 371 

XXXIII. The Conversion of the Barbarians 377 

XXXIV. Fusion of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples 385 

XXXV. The Roman Empire in the East 3^9 

XXXVI. Mohammed and the Saracens - 39^ 

?vXXVII. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire in the West 403 

XXXVIII. The Northmen 4io 

XXXIX. Rise of the Papal Power 4^4 



SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

(From the opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of America by 
Columbus, in 1492.) 

XL. FeudaHsm and Chivalry. 

1. Feudalism 421 

2. Chivalry 4^9 

XLI. The Norman Conquest of England 433 

XLII. The Crusades. 

1. Introductory : Causes of the Crusades 43^ 

2. The First Crusade 44^ 

3. The Second Crusade 443 

4. The Third Crusade 444 

5. The Fourth Crusade 44^ 

6. Close of the Crusades : Their Results 447 

XLIII. Supremacy of the Papacy: Decline of its Temporal Power. . 452 

[LIV. Conquests of the Turanian Tribes 460 

XLV. Growth of the Towns : The Italian City-Republics 464 

-LVI. The Revival of Learning 47^ 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XLVII. Growth of the Nations : Formation of National Governments 
and Literatures. 

1. England 479 

2. France 491 

3. Spain 498 

4. Germany . .' 501 

5. Russia , 508 

6. Italy 509 

7. The Northern Countries , 512 



Section II. — Modern History. 

Introduction 513 

THIRD PERIOD.— THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 

(From the Discovery of America to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648.) 

XLVIII. The Beginnings of the Reformation under Luther 519 

XLIX. The Ascendency of Spain. 

1. Reign of the Emperor Charles V 530 

2. Spain under Philip II 535 

L. The Tudors and the English Reformation. 

1. Introductory 539 

2. The Reign of Henry VII 541 

3. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII. .... 543 

4. Changes in the Creed and Ritual under Edward VI.. . 550 

5. Reaction under Mary 552 

6. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth. 554 
LI. The Revolt of the Netherlands : Rise of the Dutch Repubhc 563 

LII. The Huguenot Wars in France ... 572 

LIII. The Thirty Years' War 582 

FOURTH PERIOD. —THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION. 

(From the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to the present time.) 

LIV. The Ascendency of France under the Absolute Government 

of Louis XIV 590 

LV, England under the Stuarts: The English Revolution. 

1. The First Two Stuarts 601 

2. The Commonwealth 613 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTEK PAGE 

3. The Restored Stuarts , 618 

4. The Orange-Stuarts 626 

5. England under the Earher Hanoverians 630 

LVI. The Rise of Russia : Peter the Great 633 

LVII. The Rise of Prussia : Frederick the Great 642 

LVIII. The French Revolution. 

1. Causes of the Revolution: The States-General of 1789. . 647 

2. The National, or Constituent Assembly ... 65 1 

3. The Legislative Assembly 655 

4. The National Convention 657 

5. The Directory 667 

LIX. The Consulate and the First Empire : France since the Second 

Restoration. 

1. The Consulate and the Empire. 673 

2. France since the Second Restoration 688 

LX. Russia since the Congress of Vienna 692 

LXI. German Freedom and Unity 700 

LXII. Liberation and Unification of Italy 708 

LXIII. England since the Congress of Vienna. 

1. Progress towards Democracy 715 

2. Expansion of the Principle of Religious Equality 720 

3. Growth of the British Empire in the East 723 

Conclusion : The New Age 729 

Index. Pronouncing Vocabulary, and Glossary 733 



LIST OF COLORED MAPS. 



-*o^- 



PAGE 

■ I. Ancient Egypt i8 

2. The Tigris and the Euphrates 42 

3. Greece and the Greek Colonies iii 

4. Greece in the Fifth Century b.c 147 

, 5. Dominions and Dependencies of Alexander, c. B.C. '323 163 

\ 6. Kingdoms of Successors to Alexander, c. B.C. 300 171 

7. Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power ' 222 

8. Mediterranean Lands at the Beginning of Second Punic War 254 

9. Roman Dominions at the End of the Mithridatic War 282 

10. The Roman Empire under Trajan, A.D. 117 318 

11. Roman Empire divided into Prefectures 333 

12. Europe in the Reign of Theodoric, c. A.D. 500 371 

13. Europe in the Time of Charles the Great, 814 408 

14. Central Europe, 1360 506 

15. The Spanish Kingdom and its European Dependencies under 

Charles V 530 

16. Central Europe, 1801 674 

17. Central Europe, 1810 681 

18. Central Europe, 1815 684 

19. South-Eastern Europe under the Treaty of Berlin, 1878 696 

20. Europe in 1880 705 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



-oOitHc 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 

Divisions of History. — History is usually divided into three 
periods, — Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern. Ancient History 
begins with the earliest nations of which we can gain any certain 
knowledge, and extends to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 
West, A.D. 476. Mediaeval History embraces the period, about 
one thousand years in length, lying between the fall of Rome and 
the discovery of the New World by Columbus, a.d. 1492. Mod- 
ern History commences with the close of the Mediaeval period 
and extends to the present time.^ 

Antiquity of Man. — We do not know when man first came 
into possession of the earth. We only know that, in ages vastly 
remote, when both the climate and the outhne of Europe were 
very different from what they are at present, man lived on that 
continent with animals now extinct ; and that as early as 4000 or 
3000 B.C., — when the curtain first rises on the stage of history, — 
in some favored regions, as in the Valley of the Nile, there were 
nations and civilizations already venerable with age, and possess- 
ing languages, arts, and institutions that bear evidence of slow 

1 It is thought preferable by some scholars to let the beginning of the great 
Teutonic migration (a.d. 375) mark the end of the period of ancient history. 
Some also prefer to date the beginning of the modern period from the capture 
of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453; while still others speak of it in a 
general way as commencing about the close of the 15th century, at which time 
there were many inventions and discoveries, and a great stir in the intellectual 
world. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



growth through very long periods of time before written hist*, 
begins.^ 

The Races of Mankind. — Distinctions in form, color, an. 
physiognomy divide the human species into three chief types, o 
races, known as the Black (Ethiopian, or Negro), the Yellow (Tura- 
nian, or Mongolian), and the White (Caucasian). But we must 
not suppose each of these three types to be sharply marked off from 
the others ; they shade into one another by insensible gradations. 
There has been no perceptible change in the great types during 
historic times. The paintings upon the oldest Egyptian monu- 
ments show us that at the dawn of history, about five or six thou- 
sand years ago, the principal races were as distinctly marked as 

now, each bearing its racial badge of 
color and physiognomy. As early as the 
times of Jeremiah, the permanency of 
physical characteristics had passed into 
the proverb, " Can the Ethiopian change 
his skin?" 

Of all the races, the White, or Cau- 
casian, exhibits by far the most perfect 
type, physically, intellectually, and mor- 
ally. 

The Black Race. — Africa is the home 
of the peoples of the Black Race, but 
we find tliem on all the other continents, whither they have been 
carried as slaves by the stronger races ; for since time immemo- 
rial they have been " hewers of wood and drawers of water " for 
their more favored brethren. 

The Yellow, or Turanian Race. — The term Turanian is very 
loosely applied by the historian to many and widely separated 
famihes and peoples. In its broadest application it is made to 
include the Chinese and other more .or less closely alhed peoples 
of Eastern Asia ; the Ottoman Turks, the Hungarians, the Finns, 

1 The investigation and study of this vast background of human life is left to 
such sciences as Ethnology, Comparative Philology , and Prehistoric Archceology. 




NEGRO CAPTIVES, 
From the Monuments of Thebes, 

(Illustrating the permanence of race 
characteristics.) 



THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 3 

e Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe ; and (by some) the Esqui- 
maux and American Indians. 

The peoples of this race were, it seems, the first inhabitants of 
Europe and of the New World ; but in these quarters, they have, 
in the main, either been exterminated or absorbed by later comers 
of the White Race. In Europe, however, two small areas of this 
primitive population escaped the common fate — the Basques, 
sheltered among the Pyrenees, and the Finns and Lapps, in the 
far north j^ while in the New World, the Esquimaux and the 
Indians still represent the race that once held undisputed pos- 
session of the land. 

The polished stone implements found in the caves and river- 
gravels of Western Europe, the shell-mounds, or kitchen-middens, 
upon the shores of the Baltic, the Swiss lake-habitations, and the 
barrows, or grave-mounds, found in all parts of Europe, are sup- 
posed to be relics of a prehistoric Turanian people. 

Although some of the Turanian peoples, as for instance the 
Chinese, have made considerable advance in civilization, still as 
a rule the peoples of this race have made but httle progress in the 
arts or in general culture. Even their languages have remained 
undeveloped. These seem immature, or stunted in their growth. 
They have no declensions or conjugations, like those of the lan- 
guages of the Caucasian peoples. 

The White Race and its Three Families. — The White Race 
embraces the historic nations. This type divides into three fami- 
lies, — the Hamitic, the Semitic, and the Aryan, or Indo-European 
(formerly called the Japhetic). 

The ancient Egyptians were the chief people of the Hamitic 
branch. In the gray dawn of history we discover them already 
settled in the Valley of the Nile, and there erecting great monu- 
ments so faultless in construction as to r&nder it certain that those 
who planned them had had a very long previous training in the 
art of building. 

^ The Hungarians and Turks are Turanian peoples that have thrust them- 
selves into Europe during historic times. 



4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient 
Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the 
Arabians. We are not certain what region was the original abode 
of this family. We only know that by the dawn of history its 
various clans and tribes, whencesoever they may have come, had 
distributed themselves over the greater part of Southwestern Asia. 

It is interesting to note that the three great historic religions of 
the world, — the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan, — 
the three religions that alone (if we except that of Zoroaster) 
teach a belief in one God, arose among peoples belonging to the 
Semitic family. 

The Aryan, or Indo-European, though probably the youngest, 
is the most widely scattered family of the White Race. It includes 
among its members the ancient Hindus, Medes, and Persians, 
the classic Greeks and Romans, and the modern descendants of 
all these nations ; also almost all the peoples of Europe, and their 
colonists that have peopled the New World, and taken possession 
of other parts of the earth. This is the family to which we our- 
selves belong. 

Migrations of the Aryans. — The original seat of the Aryan 
peoples was, it is conjectured, somewhere in Asia. At a period 
that cannot be placed later than 3000 B.C., the Aryan household 
began to break up and scatter, and the different clans to set out 
in search of new dwelling-places. Some tribes of the family spread 
themselves over the table-lands of Iran and the plains of India, 
and became the progenitors of the Medes,- the Persians, and the 
Hindus. Other clans entering Europe probably by the way of the 
Hellespont, pushed themselves into the peninsulas of Greece and 
Italy, and founded the Greek and Italian states. Still other tribes 
seem to have poured in successive waves into Central Europe. 
The vanguard of these peoples are known as the Celts. After them 
came the Teutonic tribes, who crowded the former out on the 
westernmost edge of Europe — into Gaul and Spain, and out upon 
the British Isles. These hard-pressed Celts are represented to-day 
by the Welsh, the Irish, and the Highland Scots. Behind the 



THE RA CES AND THEIR EARL V MIGRA TIONS. 5 

Teutonic peoples were the Slavonic folk, who pushed the former 
hard against the Celts, and, when they could urge them no farther 
to the west, finally settled down and became the ancestors of the 
Russians and other kindred nations. 

Although these migratory movements of the various clans and 
tribes of this wonderful Aryan family began in the early morning of 
history, some five thousand or more years ago, still we must not 
think of them as something past and unrelated to the present. 
These movements, begun in those remote times, are still going on. 
The overflow of the population of Europe into the different re- 
gions of the New World, is simply a continuation of the prehistoric 
migrations of the members of the primitive Aryan household. 

Everywhere the other races and families have given way before 
the advance of the Aryan peoples, who have assumed the position 
of leaders and teachers among the families of mankind, and are 
rapidly spreading their arts and sciences and culture over the 
earth. 

Early Culture of the Aryans. — One of the most fascinating 
studies of recent growth is that which reveals to us the customs, 
beliefs, and mode of life of the early Aryans, while they were yet liv- 
ing together as a single household. Upon comparing the myths, 
legends, and ballads of the different Aryan peoples, we discover 
the curious fact that, under various disguises, they are the same. 
Thus our nursery tales are found to be identical with those with 
which the Hindu children are amused. But the discovery should 
not surprise us. We and the Hindus are kinsmen, children of the 
same home ; so now, when after a long separation we meet, the 
tales we tell are the same, for they are the stories that were told 
around the common hearth-fire of our Aryan forefathers. 

And when we compare certain words in different Aryan lan- 
guages, we often find them alike in form and meaning. Thus, 
take the word father. This word occurs with but little change 
of form in several of the Aryan tongues.^ From this we infer that 

1 Sanscrit, pitri ; Persian, padar ; Greek, iraT-fip (^pater); Latin, pater ; 
German, vater. 



6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

the remote ancestors of the now widely separated Aryan peoples 
once lived together and had a common speech. 

Our knowledge of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans, gained 
through the sciences of comparative philology and mythology, may 
be summed up as follows : They personified and worshipped the 
various forces and parts of the physical universe, such as the Sun, 
the Dawn, Fire, the Winds, the Clouds. The all-embracing sky 
they worshipped as the Heaven-Father {Dyaus-Pitar, whence 
Jupiter). They were herdsmen and at least occasional farmers. 
They introduced the sheep, as well as the horse, into Europe : 
the Turanian people whom they displaced had neither of these 
domestic animals. In social life they had advanced to that stage 
where the family is the unit of society. The father was the priest 
and absolute lord of his house. The families were united to form 
village-communities ruled by a chief, or patriarch, who was assisted 
by a council of elders. 

Importance of Aryan Studies. — This picture of life in the 
early Aryan home, the elements of which are gathered in so novel 
a way, is of the very greatest historical value and interest. In 
these customs and beliefs of the early Aryans, we discover the 
germs of many of the institutions of the classical Greeks and 
Romans, and of the nations of modern Europe. Thus, in the 
council of elders around the village patriarch, political historians 
trace the beginnings of the senates of Greece and Rome and the 
national parhaments of later times. 

Just as the teachings of the parental roof mould the life and 
character of the children that go out from under its disciphne, so 
have the influences of that early Aryan home shaped the habits, 
institutions, and character of those peoples and families that, as 
its children, went out to establish new homes in their " appointed 
habitations." 



RACES OF MANKIND. 



(races of mankind, with chief families and peoples. 

Black Race f Tribes of Central and Southern Africa, the Papuans and 
(Ethiopian, or -j the Australians. (This group includes two great divis- 
Negro). [ ions, the Negroid and Australoid.) 

(i) The Chinese, Burmese, Japanese, and other kindred 
peoples of Eastern Asia; (2) the Malays of Southeast- 
ern Asia, and the inhabitants of many of the Pacific 
islands; (3) the nomads (Tartars, Mongols, etc.) of 
Northern and Central Asia and of Eastern Russia; (4) 
the Turks, the Magyars, or Hungarians, the Finns and 
Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe; (5) the Esquimaux 
and the American Indians. Languages of these peoples 
are monosyllabic or agglutinative. (Note that the Ma- 
lays and American Indians were formerly classified as 
distinct races.) 



Yellow Race 
(Turanian, or - 
Mongolian). 



White Race 
(Caucasian). 



Hamitic 
Family 



Semitic 
Family 



r Egyptians, 
\ Libyans, 
[ Ethiopians. 

Chaldseans (partly Turanian), 
Assyrians, 
Babylonians, 
\ Canaanites (chiefly Semitic), 
Phoenicians, 
Hebrews, 
Arabs. 



Aryan, or 
Indo-Eu- 
ropean 
Family 



Indo-Iranic Branch 



Grseco-Italic Branch 



Hindus, 

Medes, 

Persians. 

Greeks, 

Romans. 

Gauls, 



Celtic Branch -( ^ ^ /■% • x,\ 

J Scots (Irish), 



Teutonic Branch 



Picts. 

High Germans, 

Low Germans, 

Scandinavians. 

Slavonic Branch / Russians, 

Poles, etc. 



The peoples of modern Germany are the descendants of various Germanic tribes. The 
Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes represent the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic family. 
The Irish, the Welsh, the Scotch Highlanders, and the Bretons of Brittany (anciently Armor- 
ica), in France, are the present representatives of the ancient Celts. The French, Spaniards, 
Portuguese, and Italians have sprung, in the main, from a blending of the Celts, the ancient 
Romans, and the Germanic tribes that thrust themselves within the limits of the Roman Em- 
pire in the West. The English are the descendants of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (Teu- 
tonic tribes), slightly modified by interminglings with the Danes and Normans (also of Teu- 
tonic origin). (See MedicEval and Modern History, pp. 169-178.) 



Part I. 

ANCIENT HISTORY 



SECTION I. — THE EASTERN NATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INDIA AND CHINA. 
I . India. 

The Aryan Invasion. — At the time of the great Aryan migra- 
tion (see p. 4), some Aryan bands, journeying from the northwest, 
settled first the plains of the Indus and then occupied the valley 
of the Ganges. They reached the banks of the latter river as 
early probably as 1500 B.C. 

These fair-skinned invaders found the land occupied by a dark- 
skinned, non-Aryan race, whom they either subjugated and reduced 
to serfdom, or drove out of the great river valleys into the moun- 
tains and the half-desert plains of the peninsula. 

The Origin of Castes. — The conflict of races in Northern India 
gave rise to what is known as the system of castes ; that is, society 
became divided into a number of rigid hereditary classes. There 
arose gradually four chief castes: (i) Brahmans, or priests ; (2) 
warriors ; (3) agriculturists and traders ; and (4) serfs, or Sudras. 
The Brahmans were those of pure Aryan blood, while the Sudras 
were the despised and oppressed non- Aryan aborigines. The 
two middle classes, the warriors and the cultivators of the soil, 
were of mixed Aryan and non-Aryan blood. Below these several 



THE FED AS. 9 

castes were the Pariahs, or outcasts, the most degraded of the 
degraded natives.^ 

The system of castes, modified however by various influences, 
particularly by the later system of Buddhism (see p. ii), has char- 
acterized Hindu society from the time the system originated 
down to the present, and is one of the most important facts of 
Indian history. 

The Vedas. — The most important of the sacred books of the 
Hindus are called the Vedas. They are written in the Sanscrit 
language, which is believed to be the oldest form of Aryan speech. 
The Rig- Veda, the most ancient of the books, is made up of 
hymns which were composed chiefly during the long period, per- 
haps a thousand years or more, while the Aryans were slowly 
working their way from the mountains on the northwest of India 
across the peninsula to the Ganges. These hymns are filled with 
memories of the long conflict of the fair-faced Aryans with the 
dark-faced aborigines. The Himalayas, through whose gloomy 
passes the early emigrants journeyed, must have deeply impressed 
the wanderers, for the poets often refer to the great dark moun- 
tains. 

Brahmanism. — The religion of the Indian Aryans is known as 
Brahmanism. This system gradually developed from the same 
germs as those out of which grew the Greek and Roman religions. 
It was at first a pure nature -worship, that is, the worship of the 
most striking phenomena of the physical world as intelligent and 
moral beings. The chief god was Dyaus-Pitar, the Heaven-Father. 
As this system characterized the early period when the oldest 
Vedic hymns were composed, it is known as the Vedic religion. 

1 At a later period, the Brahmans, in order to perpetuate their own ascend- 
ancy and to secure increased reverence for their order, incorporated among the 
sacred hymns an account of creation which gave a sort of divine sanction to 
the system of castes by representing the different classes of society to have 
had different origins. The Brahmans, the sacred books are made to say, came 
forth from the mouth of Brahma, the soldier from his arms, the farmer from 
his thighs, and the Sudra from his feet. 



10 INDIA AND CHINA. 

In course of time this nature-worship of the Vedic period de- 
veloped into a sort of pantheism, that is, a system which identifies 
God with the universe. This form of the Indian rehgion is known 
as Brahmanism. Brahma, an impersonal essence, is conceived as 
the primal existence. Forth from Brahma emanated, as heat and 
light emanate from the sun, all things and all life. Banish a per- 
sonal God from the universe, as some modern scientists would do, 
leaving nothing but nature with her original nebula, her endless 
cycles, her unconscious evolutions, and we have something very 
like Brahmanism. 

A second fundamental conception of Brahmanism is that all 
life, apart from Brahma, is evil, is travail and sorrow. We can 
make this idea intelligible to ourselves by remembering what are 
our own ideas of this earthly life. We call it a feverish dream, a 
journey through a vale of sorrow. Now the Hindu regards all 
conscious existence in the same light. He has no hope in a 
better future ; so long as the soul is conscious, so long must it 
endure sorrow and pain. 

This conception of all conscious existence as necessarily and 
always evil, leads naturally to the doctrine that it is the part of 
wisdom and of duty for man to get rid of consciousness, to anni- 
hilate himself, in a word, to commit soul-suicide. Brahman- 
ism teaches that the only way to extinguish self and thus get rid 
of the burden of existence, is by re-absorption into Brahma. But 
this return to Brahma is dependent upon the soul's purification, 
for no impure soul can be re-absorbed into the primal essence. 
The necessary freedom from passion and the required purity of 
soul can best be attained by self-torture, by a severe mortification 
of the flesh ; hence the asceticism of the Hindu devotee. 

As only a few in each generation reach the goal, it follows that 
the great majority of men must be born again, and yet again, until 
all evil has been purged away from the soul and eternal repose 
found in Brahma. He who lives a virtuous life is at death born 
into some higher caste, and thus he advances towards the longed- 
for end. The evil man, however, is born into a lower caste, or 



BUDDHISM. 



11 



perhaps his soul enters some unclean animal. This doctrine of 
re-birth is known as the transmigration of souls (metempsychosis^. 

Only the first three classes are admitted to the benefits of relig- 
ion. The Sudras and the outcasts are forbidden to read the sacred 
books, and for any one of the upper classes to teach a serf how 
to expiate sin is a crime. 

Buddhism. — In the fifth century before our era, a great teacher 
and reformer, known as Buddha, or Gautama (died about 470 
B.C.), arose in India. He was 
a prince, whom legend repre- 
sents as being so touched by 
the universal misery of man- 
kind, that he voluntarily aban- 
doned the luxury of his home, 
and spent his life in seeking 
out and making known to men 
a new and better way of sal- 
vation, He condemned the 
severe penances and the self- 
torture of the Brahmans, yet 
commended poverty and retire- 
ment from active life as the best 
means of getting rid of desire 
and of attaining Nirvana, that 
is, the repose of unconsciousness. 

Buddha admitted all classes to the benefits of religion, the poor 
outcast as well as the high-born Brahman, and thus Buddhism was 
a revolt against the earlier harsh and exclusive system of Brah- 
manism. It holds somewhat the same relation to Brahmanism 
that Christianity bears to Judaism. 

Buddhism gradually gained the ascendancy over Brahmanism ; 
but after some centuries the Brahmans regained their power, and 
by the eighth century after Christ, the faith of Buddha was driven 
out of almost every part of India. But Buddhism has a profound 
missionary spirit, hke that of Christianity, Buddha having com- 




STATUE OF BUDDHA. 



12 INDIA AND CHINA. 

manded his disciples to make known to all men the way to Nir- 
vana ; and consequently during the very period when India was 
being lost, the missionaries of the reformed creed were spreading 
the teachings of their master among the peoples of all the coun- 
tries of Eastern Asia, so that to-day Buddhism is the religion 
of almost one third of the human race, Buddha has probably 
nearly as many followers as both Christ and Mohammed together. 

During its long conflict with Buddhism, Brahmanism was greatly 
modified, and caught much of the gentler spirit of the new faith, 
so that modern Brahmanism is a very different religion from that 
of the ancient system ; hence it is usually given a new name, 
being known as Hinduism.^ 

Alexander's Invasion of India (327 b.c). — Although we find 
obscure notices of India in the records of the early historic peoples 
of Western Asia, yet it is not until the invasion of the peninsmla 
by Alexander the Great in 327 b.c. that the history of the Indian 
Aryans comes in significant contact with that of the progressive 
nations of the West. From that day to our own its systems of 
philosophy, its wealth, and its commerce have been more or less 
important factors in universal history. Greece carried on an intel- 
lectual commerce with this country ; Rome, and the Italian repub- 
lics of the Middle Ages, a more material but not less important 
trade. Columbus was seeking a short all-sea route to this coun- 
try when he found the New World. And in the upbuilding of the 
imperial greatness of the England of to-day, the wealth and trade 
of India have played no inconsiderable part. 

2. China. 

General Remarks : the Beginning. — China is the seat of a 
very old civilization, older perhaps than that of any other land 
save Egypt ; yet Chinese affairs have not until recently exerted 
any appreciable influence upon the general current of history. 

1 Among the customs introduced into Brahmanism during this period was 
the rite of Suttee, or the voluntary burning of the widow on the funeral pyre of 
her husband. 



DYNASTIC HISTORY. 13 

All through ancient and mediaeval times the country lay, vague 
and mysterious, in the haze of the world's horizon. During the 
Middle Ages the land was known to Europe under the name of 
Cathay. 

The beginning of the Chinese nation was a band of Turanian 
wanderers who came into the basin of the Yellow River, from the 
West, probably prior to 3000 B.C. These immigrants gradually 
pushed out the aborigines whom they found in the land, and laid 
the basis of institutions that have endured to the present day. 

Dynastic History. — The government of China since the remot- 
est times has been a parental monarchy. The Emperor is the 
father of his people. But though an absolute prince, still he dare 
not rule tyrannically : he must rule justly, and in accordance with 
the ancient customs and laws. 

The Chinese have books that purport to give the history of the 
different dynasties that have ruled in the land from a vast antiquity ; 
but these records are largely mythical and legendary. Everything 
is confused and uncertain until we reach the eighth or seventh 
century before our era ; and even then we meet with little of 
interest in the dynastic history of the country until we come to 
the reign of Che Hwang-te (246-210 B.C.). This energetic ruler 
strengthened and consolidated the imperial power, and executed 
great works of internal improvement, such as roads and canals. 
As a barrier against the incursions of the Huns, he began the 
erection of the celebrated Chinese Wall, a great rampart extending 
for about 1500 miles along the northern frontier of the country.^ 

From the strong reign of Che Hwang- te to the end of the period 

1 The Great Wall is one of the most remarkable works of man. " It is," 
says Dr. Williams, " the only artificial structure which would arrest attention 
in a hasty survey of the globe." It has been estimated that there is more than 
seventy times as much material in the wall as there is in the Great Pyramid 
of Cheops, and that it represents more labor than 100,000 miles of ordinary 
railroad. It was begun in 214 and finished in 204 B.C. It is twenty-five feet 
wide at base, and from fifteen to thirty feet high. Towers forty feet high rise 
at irregular intervals. In some places it is a mere earthen rampart; in others 
it is faced with brick; and then again it is composed of stone throughout. 



14 INDIA AND CHINA. 

covered by ancient history, Chinese dynastic records present no 
matters of universal interest that need here occupy our attention. 

Chinese Writing. — It is nearly certain that the art of writing 
was known among the Chinese as early as 2000 B.C. The system 
employed is curiously cumbrous. In the absence of an alphabet, 
each word of the language is represented upon the written page 
by means of a symbol, or combination of symbols ; this, of course, 
requires that there be as many symbols, or characters, as there 
are words in the language. The number sanctioned by good use 
is about 25,000; but counting obsolete characters, the number 
amounts to over 50,000. A knowledge of 5000 or 6000 char- 
acters, however, enables one to read and write without difficulty. 
The task of learning even this number might well be hopeless, 
were it not that many of the characters bear a remote resemblance 
to the objects for which they stand, and when once explained, 
readily suggest the thing or idea represented. The nature of the 
characters shows conclusively that the Chinese system of writing, 
like that of all others with which we are acquainted, was at first 
purely hieroglyphical, that is, the characters were originally simply 
rude outline pictures of material objects. Time and use have worn 
them to their present form. 

This Chinese system of representing thought, cumbrous and 
inconvenient as it is, is employed at the present time by one 
third of the human race. 

Printing from blocks was practised in China as early as the 
sixth century of our era, and printing from movable types as early 
as the tenth or eleventh century, that is to say, about four hundred 
years before the same art was invented in Europe. 

Chinese Literature : Confucius and Mencius. — The most highly 
prized portion of Chinese hterature is embraced in what is known 
as the Five Classics and the Four Books, called collectively the 
Nine Classics. The Five Classics are among the oldest books in 
the world. For some of the books an antiquity of 3000 years is 
claimed. The books embrace chronicles, political and ethical 
maxims, and numerous odes. One of the most important of the 



INFLUENCE OF THE SAGE CONFUCIUS. 15 

Classics is the so-called Book of Rites, said to date from 1200 

B.C. 

The Four Books are of later origin than the Five Classics, 
having been written about the fifth and fourth centuries before 
the Christian era; yet they hardly yield to them in sacredness 
in the eyes of the Chinese. The first three of the series are by 
the pupils of the great sage and moralist Confucius (551-478 
B.C.), and the fourth is by Mencius (371-288 B.C.), a disciple 
of Confucius^ and a scarcely less revered philosopher and ethical 
teacher. The teachings of the Four Books may be summed up 
in the simple precept, '' Walk in the Trodden Paths." Confu- 
cius was not a prophet, or revealer ; he laid no claims to a super- 
natural knowledge of God or of the hereafter ; he said nothing of 
an Infinite Spirit, and but little of a future life. His cardinal pre- 
cepts were obedience to superiors, reverence for the ancients, and 
imitation of their virtues. He himself walked in the old paths, 
and thus added the force of example to that of precept. He 
gave the Chinese the Golden Rule, stated negatively : " What 
you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." 

During the reign of Che Hwang- te (see p. 13), Chinese litera- 
ture suffered a great disaster. That despot, for the reason that 
the teachers in their opposition to him were constantly quoting 
the ancient writings against his innovations, ordered the chief 
historical books to be destroyed, and sentenced to death any one 
who should presume to talk about the proscribed writings, or even 
allude to the virtues of the ancients in such a way as to reflect 
upon his reforms. The contumacious he sent to work upon the 
Great Wall. But the people concealed the books in the walls of 
their houses, or better still hid them away in their memories ; and 
in this way the priceless inheritance of antiquity was preserved 
until the storm had passed. 

Influence of this Literature and of the Sage Confucius. — It 
would be impossible to exaggerate the influence which the Nine 
Classics have had upon the Chinese nation. For more than 2000 
years these writings have been the Chinese Bible. And as all of the 



16 INDIA AND CHINA. 

Four Books, though they were not written by Confucius, yet bear 
the impress of his mind and thought, just as the Gospels teach 
the mind of Christ, a large part of this influence must be attrib- 
uted to the Hfe and teachings of that great Sage. His influence 
has been greater than that of any other teacher, excepting Christ 
and perhaps Buddha. His precepts, implicitly followed by his 
countrymen, have shaped their lives from his day to the present. ' 
The moral system of Confucius, making, as it does, filial obedi- 
ence and a conformity to ancient customs primary virtues, has 
exalted the family life among the Chinese and given a wonderful 
stability to Chinese society. Chinese children are the most obedi- 
ent and reverential to parents of any children in the world, and 
the Chinese Empire is the only one in all history that has pro- 
longed its existence from ancient times to the present. 

- But along with much good, one great evil has resulted from this 
blind, servile following of the past. The Chinese in strictly 
obeying the injunction to walk in the old ways, to conform to 
the customs of the ancients, have failed to mark out any new 
footpaths for themselves. Hence their lack of originaHty, their 
habit of imitation : hence the unchanging, unprogressive charac- 
ter of Chinese civilization. 

Education and Civil Service Competitive Examinations. — 
China has a very ancient educational system. The land was fifled 
with schools, academies, and colleges more than a thousand years 
before our era, and education is to-day more general among the 
Chinese than among any other pagan people. A knowledge of 
the sacred books is the sole passport to civil office and public 
employment. All candidates for places in the government must 
pass a competitive examination in the Nine Classics. This system 
is practically the same in principle as that which we, with great 
difficulty, are trying to establish in connection with our own civil 
service. 

The Three Religions, — Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. 

— There are three leading religions in China, — Confucianism, 
Taoism, and Buddhism. The great Sage Confucius is reverenced 



POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE. 17 

and worshipped throughout the Empire. He holds somewhat the 
same relation to the system that bears his name that Christ holds 
to that of Christianity. Taoism takes its name from Tao, which is 
made, hke Brahma in Brahmanism, the beginning of all things. It 
is a very curious system of mystical ideas and superstitious prac- 
tices. Buddhism was introduced into China about the opening of 
ihe Christian era, and soon became widely spread. 

There is one element common to all these religions, and that is 
the worship of ancestors. Every Chinese, whether he be a Con- 
fucianist, a Taoist, or a Buddhist, reverences his ancestors, and 
prays and makes offerings to their spirits. 

Policy of Non-Intercourse. — The Chinese have always been a 
very self-satisfied and exclusive people. They have jealously 
excluded foreigners and outside influence from their country. The 
Great Wall with which they have hedged in their country on the 
north, is the symbol of their policy of isolation. Doubtless this 
characteristic of the Chinese has been fostered by their geographi- 
cal isolation ; for great mountain barriers and wide deserts cut the 
country off from communication with the rest of the Asiatic con- 
tinent. And then their reverence for antiquity has rendered them 
intolerant of innovation and change. Hence, in part, the unwil- 
hngness of the Chinese to admit into their country railroads, tele- 
graphs, and other modern improvements. For them to adopt these 
new-fangled inventions, would be like our adopting a new religion. 
Such a departure from the ways and customs of the past has in it, 
to their way of thinking, something akin to disrespect and irrev- 
erence for ancestors. 



18 EGYPT. 



CHAPTER II. 

EGYPT. 
I. Political History. 

Egypt and the Nile. — Egypt comprises the delta of the Nile 
and the flood-plains of its lower course. The whole land is 
formed of the deposits of the river ; hence Herodotus, in happy 
phrase, called the country '^ the gift of the Nile." The delta 
country was known to the ancients as Lower Egypt ; while the 
valley proper, reaching from the head of the delta to the First 
Cataract, a distance of six hundred miles, was called Upper 
Egypt.' 

Through the same means by which Egypt was originally created, 
is the land each year still renewed and fertihzed. The Nile, 
swollen by the heavy tropical rains about its sources, begins to 
rise in its lower parts late in June, and by October, when the 
inundation has attained its greatest height, the country presents 
the appearance of an inland sea. 

By the end of November the river has returned to its bed, and 
the fields, over which has been spread a film of rich earth,^ present 
the appearance of black mud-flats. Usually the plow is run 
lightly over the soft surface, but in some cases the grain is sown 
upon the undisturbed deposit, and simply trampled in by flocks of 

1 About seven hundred miles from the Mediterranean a low ledge of rocks, 
stretching across the Nile, forms the first obstruction to navigation in passing 
up the river. The rapids found at this point are termed the First Cataract. 
Six other cataracts occur in the next seven hundred miles of the river's course. 

2 The rate of the fluviatile deposit is from three to five inches in a century. 
The surface of the valley at Thebes, as shovs'n by the accumulations about the 
monuments, has been raised seven feet during the last seventeen hundred years. 



CLIMA TE. 19 

sheep and goats driven over it. In a few weeks the entire land, 
so recently a flooded plain, is overspread with a sea of verdure, 
which forms a striking contrast to the desert sands and barren 
hills that rim the valley. 

Climate. — In Lower Egypt, near the sea, the rainfall in the 
winter is abiindant ; but the climate of Upper Egypt is all but 
rainless, only a few slight showers falling throughout the year. 
This dryness of the Egyptian air is what has preserved through so 
many thousand years, in , such wonderful freshness of color and 
with such sharpness of outline, the numerous paintings and sculp- 
tures of the monuments of the Pharaohs. 

The southern line of Egypt only just touches the tropics ; still 
the climate, influenced by the wide and hot deserts that hem the 
valley, is semi-tropical in character. The fruits of the tropics and 
the cereals of the temperate zone grow luxuriantly. Thus favored 
in climate as well as in the matter of irrigation, Egypt became in 
early times the granary of the East. To it less favored countries, 
when stricken by famine, — a calamity so common in the East in 
regions dependent upon the rainfall, — looked for food, as did the 
families of Israel during drought and failure of crops in Pales- 
tine. 

Dynasties and Chronology. — The kings, or Pharaohs, that 
reigned in Egypt from the earliest times till the conquest of the 
country by Alexander the Great (332 B.C.), are grouped into thirty- 
one dynasties. Thirty of these we find in the lists of Manetho, an 
Egyptian priest who lived in the third century B.C., and who com- 
piled a chronicle of the kings of the country from the manuscripts 
kept in the Egyptian temples. 

We cannot assign a positive date to the beginning of the First 
Dynasty, chiefly because Egyptologists are at a loss to know 
whether to consider all the dynasties of Manetho's list as succes- 
sive or in part contemporaneous. Thus, it is held by some 
scholars that several of these families were reigning at the same 
time in the different cities of Upper and Lower Egypt ; while others 
think that they all reigned at different epochs, and that the sum 



20 EGYPT, 

of the lengths of the several dynasties gives us the true date of 
the beginning of the political history of the country. Accordingly, 
some place the beginning of the First Dynasty at about 5000 B.C., 
while others put it at about 3000 B.C. The constantly growing 
evidence of the monuments is in favor of the higher figures. 

Menes, the First of the Pharaohs. — Menes is the first kingly 
personage, shadowy and indistinct in form, that we discover in the 
early dawn of Egyptian history. Tradition makes him the founder 
of Memphis, near the head of the Delta, the site of which capital 
he secured against the inundations of the Nile by vast dikes and 
various engineering works. To him is ascribed the achievement 
of first consolidating the numerous petty principalities of Lower 
Egypt into a single state. 

The Fourth Dynasty : the Pyramid Kings (about 2 700 b.c.) . — 
The kings of the Fourth Dynasty, who reigned at Memphis, are 
called the Pyramid builders. Kufu I., the Cheops of the Greeks, ■ 
was the first great builder. To him we can now positively ascribe 
the building of the Great Pyramid, the largest of the Gizeh group, 
near Cairo ; for his name has been found upon some of the stones, 
— painted on them by his workmen before the blocks were taken 
from the quarries. 

The mountains of stone heaped together by the Pyramid kings 
are proof that they were cruel oppressors of their people, and bur- 
dened them with useless labor upon these monuments of their 
ambition. Tradition tells how the very memory of these mon- 
arch s was hated by the people. Herodotus says that the Egyp- 
tians did not like even to speak the names of the builders of the 
two largest pyramids. 

The Twelfth Dynasty (about 2300 b.c). — After the Sixth 
Dynasty, Egypt, for several centuries, is almost lost from view. 
When finally the valley emerges from the obscurity of this period, 
the old capital Memphis has receded into the background, and 
the city of Thebes has taken its place as the seat of the royal power. 

The period of the Twelfth Dynasty, a line of Theban kings, is 
one of the brightest in Egyptian history. Many monuments scat- 



THE HYKSOS, OR SHEPHERD KINGS. 21 

tered throughout the country perpetuate the fame of the sovereigns 
of this illustrious house. Egyptian civilization is regarded by 
many as having during this period reached the highest perfection 
to which it ever attained. 

The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings (from about 2 100 to 1650 b.c.) . 
— Soon after the bright period of the Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt 
again suffered a great eclipse. Nomadic tribes from Syria crossed 
the eastern frontier of Egypt, took possession of the inviting pas- 
ture-lands of the Delta, and established there the empire of the 
Shepherd Kings. 

These Asiatic intruders were violent and barbarous, and de- 
stroyed or mutilated the monuments of the country. But grad- 
ually they were transformed by the civilization with which they 
were in contact, and in time they adopted the manners and cul- 
ture of the Egyptians. It was probably during the supremacy of 
the Hyksos that the families of Israel found a refuge in Lower 
Egypt. They received a kind reception from the Shepherd Kings, 
not only because they had the same pastoral habits, but also, 
probably, because of near kinship in race. 

At last these intruders, after they had ruled in the valley four or 
five hundred years, were expelled by the Theban kings, and driven 
back into Asia. This occurred about 1650 b.c. The episode of 
the Shepherd Kings in Egypt derives great importance from the 
fact that these Asiatic conquerors were one of the mediums 
through which Egyptian civilization was transmitted to the Phoeni- 
cians, who, through their wide commercial relations, spread the 
same among all the early nations of the Mediterranean area. 

And further, the Hyksos conquest was an advantage to Egypt 
itself. The conquerors possessed political capacity, and gave the 
country a strong centralized government. They made Egypt in 
fact a great monarchy, and laid the basis of the power and glory 
of the mighty Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dy- 
nasties. 

The Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1650-1400 b.c). — The revolt 
which drove the Hyksos from the country was led by Amosis, or 



EGYPT. 



Ahmes, a descendant of the Theban kings. He was the first king 
of what is known as the Eighteenth Dynasty, probably the greatest 
race of kings, it has been said, that ever reigned upon the earth. 

The most eventful period of Egyptian history, covered by what 
is called the New Empire, now opens. Architecture and learning 
seem to have recovered at a bound from their long depression 
under the domination of the Shepherd Kings. To free his empire 
from the danger of another invasion from Asia, Amosis deter- 
mined to subdue the Syrian and Mesopotamian tribes. This for- 
eign policy, followed out by his successors, shaped many of the 
events of their reigns. 

Thothmes III., one of the greatest kings of this Eighteenth 
Dynasty, has been called " the Alexander of Egyptian history." 

During his reign the frontiers of the 
empire reached their greatest expan- 
sion. His authority extended from 
the oases of the Libyan desert to the 
Tigris and the Euphrates. 

Thothmes was also a magnificent 
builder. His architectural works in 
the valley of the Nile were almost 
numberless. He built a great part 
of the temple of Karnak, at Thebes, 
the remains of which form the most 
majestic ruin in the world. His ob- 
elisks stand to-day in Constantino- 
ple, in Rome, in London, and in 
New York. 

The name of Amunoph HL stands 
next after that of Thothmes HI. as 
one of the great rulers and builders of the Eighteenth Dynasty. 
The Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1400-1280 b.c). — The Pha- 
raohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty rival those of the Eighteenth in 
their fame as conquerors and builders. It is their deeds and 
worl;':, in connection with those of the preceding dynasty, that 




PHALANX OF THE KHITA: 

In the background, town protected by 
walls and nnoats. 



THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY. 23 

have given Egypt such a name and place in history. The two 
great names of the house are Seti I. and Rameses II. 

One of the most important of Seti's wars was that against the 
Hittites {Khita, in the inscriptions) and their allies. The Hittites 
were a powerful non-Semitic people, whose capital was Carche- 
mish, on the Euphrates, and whose strength and influence were now 
so great as to be a threat to Egypt. 

But Seti's deeds as a warrior are eclipsed by his achievements 
as a builder. He constructed the main part of what is perhaps 
the most impressive edifice ever raised by man, — the world- 
renowned " Hall of Columns," in the Temple of Karnak, at Thebes 
(see illustration, p. 32). He also cut 
for himself in the Valley of the Tombs of 
the Kings, at the same place, the most ^ ^ ^ Z^ 

beautiful and elaborate of all the rock- jf^^^ % isf^^M ^ ft 
sepulchres of the Pharaohs (see p. 31). In W ^^^^.^^^^ 
addition to these and numerous other mm*- j^^^^3r 
works, he began a canal to unite the Red l^feT'^^^B^^'- ■ 
Sea and the Nile, — an undertaking which 1^^ ^ '.^^ ^^ * 
was completed by his son and successor, ^""WMJ^^ -^^ 

Rameses II., surnamed the Great, was ""^^w"^^^* 
the Sesostris of the Greeks. His is the seti r. (From a p'^to^-non of 
most prominent name of the Nineteenth ^ mummy. 

Dynasty. Ancient writers, in fact, accorded him the first place 
among all the Egyptian sovereigns, and made him the hero of 
innumerable stories. His long reign, embracing sixty-seven years, 
was, in truth, well occupied with military expeditions and the 
superintendence of great architectural works. 

His chief wars were those against the Hittites. Time and again 
is Rameses found with his host of war-chariots in their country, 
but he evidently fails to break their power ; for we find him at 
last concluding with them a celebrated treaty, in which the chief 
of the Hittites is called ''The Great King of the Khita " (Hit- 
tites), and is formally recognized as in every respect the equal of 



24 



EGYPT, 



the king of Egypt. Later, Rameses iiiarries a daughter of the 
Hittite king. All this means that the Pharaohs had met their 
peers in the princes of the Hittites, and that they could no longer 
hope to become masters of Western Asia. 

It was probably the fear of an invasion by the tribes of Syria 
that led Rameses to reduce to a position of grinding servitude the 
Semitic peoples that under former dynasties had been permitted 
to settle in Lower Egypt; for this Nineteenth Dynasty, to which 
Rameses IL belongs, was the new king (dynasty) that arose 
"which knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8), and oppressed the children 




RAMESES II. RETURNING IN TRIUMPH FROM SYRIA, with his chariot garnished 
with the heads of his enemies. (From the monuments of Karnal<.) 



of Israel. It was during the reign of his son Menephtha that the 
Exodus took place (about 1300 B.C.). 

The Twenty-sixth Dynasty(666-52 7 e.g.). — We pass without 
comment a long period of several centuries, marked, indeed, by 
great vicissitudes in the fortunes of the Egyptian monarchs, yet 
characterized throughout by a sure and rapid dechne in the power 
and splendor of their empire. 

During the latter part of this period Egypt was tributary to As- 
syria. But about 666 b.c, a native prince, Psammetichus I. (666- 
612 B.C.), with the aid of Greek mercenaries from Asia Minor, 



THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY. 25 

succeeded in expelling the Assyrian garrisons. Psammetichus 
thus became the founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. 

The reign of this monarch marks a new era in Egyptian history. 
Hitherto Egypt had secluded herself from the world, behind bar- 
riers of jealousy, race, and pride. But Psammetichus being him- 
self, it seems, of non- Egyptian origin, and owing his throne chiefly 
to the swords of Greek soldiers, was led to reverse the policy of 
the past, and to throw the valley open to the commerce and in- 
fluences of the world. His capital, Sai's, on the Canopic branch 
of the Nile, forty miles from the Mediterranean, was filled with 
Greek citizens ; and Greek mercenaries were employed in his 
armies. 

This change of policy, occurring at just the period when the 
rising states of Greece and Rome were shaping their institutions, 
was a most significant event. Egypt became the University of the 
Mediterranean nations. From this time forward Greek philoso- 
phers, as in the case of Pythagoras and of Plato, are represented 
as becoming pupils of the Egyptian priests ; and without question 
the learning and philosophy of the ancient Egyptians exerted a 
profound influence upon the quick, susceptible mind of the Hel- 
lenic race, that was, in its turn, to become the teacher of the 
world. 

The liberal policy of Psammetichus, while resulting in a great ad- 
vantage to foreign nations, brought a heavy misfortune upon his 
own. Displeased with the position assigned Greek mercenaries in 
the army, the native Egyptian soldiers revolted, and two hundred 
thousand of the troops seceding in a body, emigrated to Ethiopia, 
whence no inducement that Psammetichus offered could persuade 
them to return. 

The son of Psammetichus, Necho II. (612-596 b.c), the 
Pharaoh-Necho of the Bible, followed the liberal policy marked 
out by his father. To facilitate commerce, he attempted to re- 
open the old canal dug by Seti I. and his son, which had become 
unnavigable. After the loss of one hundred and twenty thousand 
workmen in the prosecution of the undertaking, Necho was con- 



26 EGYPT, 

strained to abandon it ; Herodotus says, on account of an unfa- 
vorable oracle. 

Necho then fitted out an exploring expedition for the circum- 
navigation of Africa, in hope of finding a possible passage for his 
fleets from the Red Sea to the Nile by a water channel already 
opened by nature, and to which the priests and oracles could 
interpose no objections. The expedition, we have reason to be- 
lieve, actually accomplished the feat of sailing around the conti- 
nent; for Herodotus, in his account of the enterprise, says that 
the voyagers upon their return reported that, when they were 
rounding the cape, the sun was on their right hand (to the north). 
This feature of the report, which led Herodotus to disbelieve it, 
is to us the very strongest evidence possible that the voyage was 
really performed. 

The Last of the Pharaohs. — Before the close of his reign, 
Necho had come into colHsion with the king of Babylon, and was 
forced to acknowledge his supremacy. A little later, Babylon hav- 
ing yielded to the rising power of Persia, Egypt also passed under 
Persian authority (see p. 77). The Egyptians, however, were 
restive under this foreign yoke, and, after a little more than a cen- 
tury, succeeded in throwing it off; but the country was again sub- 
jugated by the Persian king Artaxerxes HI. (about 340 B.C.), and 
from that time until our own day no native prince has ever sat 
upon the throne of the Pharaohs. Long before the Persian con- 
quest, the Prophet Ezekiel, foretelling the debasement of Egypt, had 
declared, " There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." ^ 

Upon the extension of the power of the Macedonians over the 
East (333 B.C.), Egypt willingly exchanged masters ; and for three 
centuries the valley was the seat of the renowned Graeco-Egyptian 
Empire of the Ptolemies, which lasted until the Romans annexed 
the region to their all-absorbing empire (30 B.C.). 

"The mission of Egypt among the nations was fulfilled ; it had 
lit the torch of civilization in ages inconceivably remote, and had 
passed it on to other peoples of the West." 

1 Ezek. XXX. 13. 



CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 27 



2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture. 

Classes of Society. — Egyptian society was divided into three 
great classes, or orders, — priests, soldiers, and. common people ; 
the last embracing shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans. 

The sacerdotal order consisted of high-priests, prophets, scribes, 
keepers of the sacred robes and animals, sacred sculptors, masons, 
and embalmers. They enjoyed freedom from taxation, and met 
the expenses of the temple services with the income of the sacred 
lands, which embraced one third of the soil of the country. 

The priests were extremely scrupulous in the care of their per- 
sons. They bathed twice by day and twice by night, and shaved 
the entire body every third day. Their inner clothing was linen, 
woollen garments being thought unclean ; their diet was plain and 
even abstemious, in order that, as Plutarch says, " their bodies 
might sit light as possible about their souls." 

Next to the priesthood in rank and honor stood the military 
order. Like the priests, the soldiers formed a landed class. They 
held one third of the soil of Egypt. To each soldier was given 
a tract of about eight acres, exempt from all taxes. They were 
carefully trained in their profession, and there was no more effec- 
tive soldiery in ancient times than that which marched beneath 
the standard of the Pharaohs. 

The Chief Deities. — Attached to the chief temples of the 
Egyptians were colleges for the training of the sacerdotal order. 
These institutions were the repositories of the wisdom of the 
Egyptians. This learning was open only to the initiated few. 

The unity of God was the central doctrine in this private sys- 
tem. They gave to this Supreme Being the very same name by 
which he was known to the Hebrews — Nuk Pu Niik, " I am that 
I am." ^ The sacred manuscripts say, " He is the one living and 

1 " It is evident what a new light this discovery throws on the sublime 
passage in Exodus iii. 14; where Moses, whom we may suppose to have 
been initiated into this formula, is sent both to his people and to Pharaoh to 
proclaim the true God by this very title, and to declare that the God of the 



2S EGYPT. 

true God, . . . who has made all things, and was not himself 
made." 

The Egyptian divinities of the popular mythology were fre- 
quently grouped in triads. First in importance among these groups 
was that formed by Osiris, Isis (his wife and sister) , and Horus, 
their son. The members of this triad were worshipped through- 
out Egypt. 

The god Set (called Typhon by the Greek writers), the prin- 
ciple of evil, was the Satan of Egyptian mythology. While the 
good and beneficent Osiris was symbolized by the life-giving Nile, 
the malignant Typhon was emblemized by the terrors and barren- 
ness of the desert. 




MUMMY OF A SACRED BULL. (From a photograph.) 

Animal -Wor ship. —The Egyptians regarded certain animals 
as emblems of the gods, and hence worshipped them. To kill 
one of these sacred animals was adjudged the greatest impiety. 
Persons so unfortunate as to harm one through accident were 
sometimes murdered by the infuriated people. The destruction 
of a cat in a burning building was lamented more than the loss 

highest Egyptian theology was also the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
Jacob. The case is parallel to that of Paul at Athens." — Smith's Ancient 
History of the East, p. 196, note. 



ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 29 

of the property. Upon the death of a dog, every member of the 
family shaved his head. The scarabaeus, or beetle, was especially 
sacred, being considered an emblem of the sun, or of life. 

Not only were various animals held sacred, as being the emblems 
of certain deities, but some were thought to be real gods. Thus 
the soul of Osiris, it was imagined, animated the body of some 
bull, which might be known from certain spots and markings. 

Upon the death of the sacred bull, or Apis, as he was called, 
a great search, accompanied with loud lamentation, was made 
throughout the land for his successor : for, the moment the soul of 
Osiris departed from the dying bull, it entered a calf that moment 
born. The calf was always found with the proper markings ; but, as 
Wilkinson says, the young animal had probably been put to " much 
inconvenience and pain to make the marks and hair conform to 
his description." 

The body of the deceased Apis was carefully embalmed, and, 
amid funeral ceremonies of great expense and magnificence, 
deposited in the tomb of his predecessors. In 185 1, Mariette 
discovered this sepulchral chamber of the sacred bulls. It is a 
narrow gallery, two thousand feet in length, cut in the limestone 
cliffs just opposite the site of ancient Memphis. A large num- 
ber of the immense granite coffins, fifteen feet long and eight 
wide and high, have been brought to light. 

Many explanations have been given to account for the existence 
of such a debased form of worship among so cultured a people as 
were the ancient Egyptians. Probably the sacred animals in the 
later worship represent an earlier stage of the Egyptian religion, 
just as many superstitious beHefs and observances among ourselves 
are simply survivals from earlier and ruder times. 

Judgment of the Dead. ^ — Death was a great equalizer among 
the Egyptians. King and peasant alike must stand before the 
judgment-seat of Osiris and his forty-two assessors. 

This judgment of the soul in the other world was prefigured by 
a peculiar ordeal to which the body was subjected here. Between 
each chief city and the burial-place on the western edge of the 



30 



EGYPT. 



valley was a sacred lake, across which the body was borne in a 
barge. But, before admittance to the boat, it must pass the 
ordeal called " the judgment of the dead." This was a trial before 
a tribunal of forty-two judges, assembled upon the shore of the 
lake. Any person could bring accusations against the deceased, 
false charges being guarded against by the most dreadful penalties. 
If it appeared that the life of the deceased had been evil, passage 
to the boat was denied ; and the body was either carried home in 
dishonor, or, in case of the poor who could not afford to care for 
the mummy, was interred on the shores of the lake. Many mum- 
mies of those refused admission to the tombs of their fathers have 
been dug up along these " Stygian banks." 




JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD: above, an ape-assessor scourges an evil soul, 

that has been changed into an unclean animal, 

But this ordeal of the body was only a faint symbol of the dread 
tribunal of Osiris before which the soul must appear in the lower 
world. In one scale of a balance was placed the heart of the 
deceased ; in the other scale, an image of Justice, or Truth. The 
soul stands by watching the result, and, as the beam inclines, is 
either welcomed to the companionship of the good Osiris, or 
consigned to oblivion in the jaws of a frightful hippopotamus- 
headed monster, " the devourer of evil souls." This annihilation, 
however, is only the fate of those inveterately wicked. Those 
respecting whom hopes of reformation may be entertained are 



TOMBS. 



31 



condemned to return to earth and do penance in long cycles of 
lives in the bodies of various animals. This is what is known as 
the transmigration of souls. The kind of animals the soul should 
animate, and the length of its transmigrations, were determined by 
the nature of its sins. 

Tombs. — The Egyptians bestowed little care upon the tem- 
porary residences of the living, but the " eternal homes " of the 
dead were fitted up with the most lavish expenditure of labor. 
These were chambers, sometimes built of brick or stone, but more 
usually cut in the limestone cliffs that form the western rim of the 
Nile valley ; for that, as the land of the sunset, was conceived to 
be the realm of darkness and of death. The cHffs opposite the 
ancient Egyptian capitals are honeycombed with sepulchral 
cells. 




<^ 



0WWl^, 




BRICK-MAKING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. (From Thebes.) 



In the hills back of Thebes is the so-called Valley of the Tombs 
of the Kings, the " Westminster Abbey of Egypt." Here are 
twenty-five magnificent sepulchres. These consist of extensive 
rock- cut passages and chambers richly sculptured and painted. 

The subjects of the decorations of many of the tombs, particu- 
larly of the oldest, are drawn from the life and manners of the 
times. Thus the artist has converted for us the Egyptian necrop- 
olis into a city of the living, where the Egypt of four thousand 
years ago seems to pass before our eyes. 

The Pyramids. — The Egyptian pyramids, the tombs of the 
earlier Pharaohs, are the most venerable monuments that have 
been preserved to us from the early world. They were almost 
all erected before the Twelfth Dynasty. Although thus standing 



32 



EGYPT. 



away back in the earliest twilight of the historic morning, never- 
theless they mark, not the beginning, but the perfection of Egyp- 
tian art. They speak of long periods of growth in art and science 
lying beyond the era they represent. It is this vast ard myste- 
rious background 
that astonishes us 
even more than 
these giant forms 
cast up against it. 

Being sepulchral 
monuments, the 
pyramids are con- 
fined to the western 
side of the Nile 
valley (see p. 31). 
There are over 
thirty still standing, 
with traces of about 
forty more. 

The Pyramid of 
Cheops, the largest 
of the Gizeh group, 
near Cairo, rises 
from a base cov- 
ering thirteen 
acres, to a height 
of four hundred 
and fifty feet. 
According to He- 
rodotus, Cheops 
employed one hun- 
dred thousand men for twenty years in its erection. 

Palaces and Temples. — The earlier Memphian kings built 
great unadorned pyramids, but the later Theban monarchs con- 
structed splendid palaces and temples. Two of the most promi- 




THE GREAT HALL OF COLUiVINS AT KARNAK. 



PALACES AND TEMPLES. 



33 



nent masses of buildings on the site of Thebes are called, the one 
the Palace of Karnak, and the other the Temple of Luxor, from 
the names of two native villages built near or within the ruined 
enclosures. The former was more than five hundred years in 
building. As an adjunct of the Palace at Karnak was a Hall 
of Columns, which consisted of a phalanx of one hundred and 
sixty-four gigan- 
tic pillars. Some 
of these columns 
measure over 
seventy feet in 
height, with capi- 
tals sixty-five feet 
in circumference. 

In Nubia, be- 
yond the First 
Cataract, is the 
renowned rock- 
hewn temple of 
Ipsambul, the 
front of which is 
adorned with four 
gigantic portrait- 
statues of Rame- 
ses II., seventy 
feet in height. 
This temple has been pronounced the greatest and grandest 
achievement of Egyptian art. 

Sculpture : Sphinxes and Colossi. — A strange immobility, due 
to the influence of religion, attached itself, at an early period, to 
Egyptian art. The artist, in the portrayal of the figures of the 
gods, was not allowed to change a single line in the conventional 
form. Hence the impossibility of improvement in sacred sculp- 
ture. Wilkinson says that Menes would have recognized the 
statue of Osiris in the Temple of Amasis. Plato complained that 




STATUES OF MEMNON AT THEBES. 



34 , EGYPT. 

the pictures and statues in the temples in his day were no better 
than those made '' ten thousand years " before. 

The heroic, or colossal size of many of the Egyptian statues 
excites our admiration. The two colossi at Thebes, known as the 
" Statues of Memnon," are forty-seven feet high, and are hewn 
each from a single block of granite. The appearance of these 
time-worn, gigantic figures, upon the solitary plain, is singularly 
impressive. " There they sit together, yet apart, in the midst 
of the plain, serene and vigilant, still keeping their untired watch 
over the lapse of ages and the ecHpse of Egypt." 

One of these statues acquired a wide reputation among the 
Greeks and Romans, under the name of the ''Vocal Memnon." 
When the rays of the rising sun fell upon the colossus, it emitted 
low musical tones, which the Egyptians believed to be the greeting 
of the statue to the mother-sun.^ 

The Egyptian sphinxes were figures having a human head 
and the body of a lion, symbohzing intelligence and power. The 
most famous of the sphinxes of Egypt is the colossal figure 
at the base of the Great Pyramid, at Gizeh, sculptured, some 
think, by Menes, and others, by one of the kings of the Fourth 
Dynasty. The immense statue, cut out of the native rock, 
save the fore-legs, which are built of masonry, is ninety feet long 
ancl seventy feet high. " This huge, mutilated figure has an aston- 
ishing effect ; it seems like an eternal spectre. The stone phan- 
tom seems attentive ; one would say that it hears and sees. Its 
great ear appears to collect the sounds of the past ; its eyes, 
directed to the east, gaze, as it were, into the future ; its aspect 
has a depth, a truth of expression, irresistibly fascinating to the 
spectator. In this figure — half statue, half mountain — we see a 
wonderful majesty, a grand serenity, and even a sort of sweetness 
of expression." 

1 It is probable that the musical notes were produced by the action of the 
sun upon the surface of the rock while wet with dew. The phenomenon was 
observed only while the upper part of the colossus, which was broken off by 
an earthquake, remained upon the ground. When the statue was restoi-ed, 
the music ceased. 



GLASS MANUFACTURE. 35 

Glass Manufacture. — The manufacture of glass, a discovery 
usually attributed to the Phoenicians/ was carried on in Egypt 
more than four thousand years ago. The paintings of the monu- 
ments represent glass-blowers moulding all manner of articles. 
Glass bottles, and various other objects of the same material, are 
found in great numbers in the tombs. Some of these objects 
show that the ancient Egyptians were acquainted with processes 
of coloring glass that secured results which we have not yet been 
able to equal. The Egyptian artists imitated, with marvellous 
success, the variegated hues of insects and stones. The manufac- 
ture of precious gems, so like the natural stone as to defy detec- 
tion, was a lucrative profession. 

The Papyrus Paper. — The chief writing material used by the 
ancient Egyptians was the noted papyrus paper, manufactured 
from a reed which grew in the marshes and along the water- chan- 
nels of the Nile. From the Greek names of this Egyptian plant, 
byblos and papyrus, come our words "Bible " and "paper." The 
plant has now entirely disappeared from Egypt, and is found only 
on the Anapus, in the island of Sicily, and on a small stream near 
Jaffa, in Palestine. Long before the plant became extinct in 
Egypt an ancient prophecy had declared, " The paper reeds by 
the brooks . . . shall wither, be driven away, and be no more." 
(Isa. xix. 7.) The costly nature of the papyrus paper led to the 
use of many substitutes for writing purposes — as leather, broken 
pottery, tiles, stones, and wooden tablets. 

Forms of Writing. — The Egyptians employed three forms of 
writing : the hieroglyphical, consisting of rude pictures of material 
objects, usually employed in monumental inscriptions ; the hie- 
ratic, an abbreviated or rather simplified form of the hieroglyphi- 
cal, adapted to writing, and forming the greater part of the papyrus 
manuscripts ; and the demotic, or encorial, a still simpler form than 
the hieratic. The last did not come into use till about the seventh 

1 The Phoenicians, being the carriers of antiquity, often received credit 
among the peoples with whom they traded, for various inventions and discov- 
eries of which they were simply the disseminators. 



36 EGYPT. 

century b.c, and was then used for all ordinary documents, both 
of a civil and commercial nature. It could be written eight or ten 
times as fast as the hieroglyphical form. 

Key to Egyptian Writing. — The key to the Egyptian writing 
was discovered by means of the Rosetta Stone. This valuable 
relic, a heavy block of black basalt, is now in the British Museum. 
It holds an inscription, written in hieroglyphic, in demotic, and 
in Greek characters. Champollion, a French scholar, by com- 
paring the characters composing the words Ptolemy, Alexander, 
and other names in the parallel inscriptions, discovered the value 
of several of the symbols ; and thus were opened the vast libraries 
of Egyptian learning. 

We have now the Ritual, or Book, of the Dead, a sort of guide 
to the soul in its journey through the underworld ; romances, and 
fairy tales, among which is "Cinderella and the Glass Slipper" ; 
autobiographies, letters, fables, and epics ; treatises on medicine, 
astronomy, and various other scientific subjects ; and books on 
history — in prose and verse — which fully justify the declaration 
of the Egyptian priests to Solon : " You Greeks are mere children, 
talkative and vain ; you know nothing at all of the past." 

Astronomy, Geometry, and Arithmetic. — The cloudless and 
brilliant skies of Egypt invited the inhabitants of the Nile valley 
to the study of the heavenly bodies. And another circumstance 
closely related to their very existence, the inundation of the Nile, 
following the changing cycles of the stars, could not but have in- 
cited them to the watching and predicting of astronomical move- 
ments. Their observations led them to discover the length, very 
nearly, of the sidereal year, which they made to consist of 365 
days, every fourth year adding one day, making the number for 
that year 366. They also divided the year into twelve months of 
thirty days each, adding five days to complete the year. This was 
the calendar that Julius Csesar introduced into the Roman Empire, 
and which, slightly reformed by Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, has 
been the system employed by almost all the civilized world up to 
the present day. 



MEDICINE AND THE ART OF EMBALMING. 37 

The Greeks accounted for the early rise of the science of geome- 
try among the Egyptians by reference to the necessity they were 
under each year of re-estabhshing the boundaries of their fields — 
the inundation obliterating old landmarks and divisions. The 
science thus forced upon their attention was cultivated with zeal 
and success. A single papyrus has been discovered that holds 
twelve geometrical theorems. 

Arithmetic was necessarily brought into requisition in solving 
astronomical and geometrical problems. We ourselves are debtors 
to the ancient Egyptians for much of our mathematical knowledge, 
which has come to us from the banks of the Nile, through the 
Greeks and the Saracens. 

Medicine and the Art of Embalming. — The custom of em- 
balming the dead, affording opportunities for the examination of 
the body, without doubt had a great influence upon the develop- 
ment of the sciences of anatomy and medicine among the Egyp- 
tians. That the embalmers were physicians, we know from various 
testimonies. Thus we are told in the Bible that Joseph " com- 
manded the physicians to embalm his father." The Egyptian 
doctors had a very great reputation among the ancients. 

Every doctor was a specialist, and was not allowed to take 
charge of cases outside of his own branch. As the artist was for- 
bidden to change the lines of the sacred statues, so the physician 
was not permitted to treat cases save in the manner prescribed by 
the customs of the past ; and if he were so presumptuous as to 
depart from the estabhshed mode of treatment, and the patient 
died, he was adjudged guilty of murder. Many drugs and medi- 
cines were used ; the ciphers, or characters, employed by modern 
apothecaries to designate grains and drams are of Egyptian in- 
vention. 

The Egyptians believed that after a long lapse of time, several 
thousand years, the departed soul would return to earth and reani- 
mate its former body ; hence their custom of preserving the body 
by means of embalmment. In the processes of embalming, the 
physicians made use of oils, resin, bitumen, and various aromatic 



38 



EGYPT. 



gums. The body was swathed in bandages of hnen, while the 
face was sometimes gilded, or covered with a gold mask. As this, 
which was the "most approved method" of embalming, was very 
costly, the expense being equivalent probably to $1000 of our 
money, the bodies of the poorer classes were simply " salted and 
dried," wrapped in coarse mats, and laid in tiers in great trenches 
in the desert sands. 




PROFILE OF RAMESES 1!. (From a photograph of the mummy.) 

Only a few years ago (in 1881) the mummies of Thothmes III., 
Seti I., and Rameses II., together with those of nearly all of the 
other Pharaohs of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and 
Twenty-first Dynasties, were found in a secret cave near Thebes. 



THE ART OF EMBALMING. 39 

It seems that, some time in the 12th century B.C., a sudden 
alarm caused these bodies to be taken hastily from the royal tombs 
of which we have spoken (see p. 31), and secreted in this hidden 
chamber. When the danger had passed, the place of concealment 
had evidently been forgotten ; so the bodies were never restored 
to their ancient tombs, but remained in this secret cavern to be 
discovered in our own day. 

The mummies were taken to the Boulak Museum, at Cairo, 
where they were identified by means of the inscriptions upon the 
cases and wrappings. Among others the body of Seti I. and that 
of Rameses 11. were unbandaged (1886), so that now we may 
look upon the faces of the greatest and most renowned of the 
Pharaohs. The faces of both Seti and Rameses are so remarkably 
preserved, that "were their subjects to return to earth to-day 
they could not fail to recognize their old sovereigns." Both are 
strong faces, of Semitic cast, that of Rameses bearing a striking 
resemblance to that of his father Seti, and both closely resembling 
their portrait statues and profiles. Professor Maspero, the direc- 
tor-general of the excavations and antiquities of Egypt, in his 
official report of the uncovering of the mummies, writes as follows 
of the appearance of the face of Rameses : " The face of the 
mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living king. The 
expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly animal ; but even 
under the somewl^at grotesque disguise of mummification, there 
is plainly to be seen an air of sovereign majesty, of resolve, and 
of pride." ^ 

1 On the finding and identification of the Pharaohs, consult two excellent 
articles in 77/,? Century Magazine for May, 1887. 



40 CHALD^A, 



CHAPTER III. 

CHALD^A. 
I. Political History. 

Basin of the Tigris and Euphrates. — The northern part of 
the Tigris and Euphrates valley, the portion that comprised ancient 
Assyria, consists of undulating plains, broken in places by con- 
siderable mountain ridges. 

But all the southern portion of the basin, the part known as 
Chaldaea, or Babylonia, having been formed by the gradual en- 
croachment of the deposits of the Tigris and Euphrates upon the 
waters of the Persian Gulf, is as level as the sea. During a large 
part of the year, rains are infrequent ; hence agriculture is depend- 
ent mainly upon artificial irrigation. The distribution of the 
waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates was secured, in ancient 
times, by a stupendous system of canals and irrigants, which, at the 
present day, in a sand-choked and ruined condition, spread like a 
perfect network over the face of the country (see cut, p. 41). 

The productions of Babylonia are very like those of the Nile 
valley. The luxuriant growth of grain upon these alluvial flats 
excited the wonder of all the Greek travellers who visited the East, 
Herodotus will not tell the whole truth, for fear his veracity may 
be doubted. The soil is as fertile now as in the time of the histo- 
rian ; but owing to the neglect of the ancient canals, the greater 
part of this once populous district has been converted into alter- 
nating areas of marsh and desert. 

The Three Great Monarchies. — Within the Tigris-Euphrates 
basin, three great empires — the Chaldaean, the Assyrian, and the 
Babylonian — successively rose to prominence and dominion. 
Each, in turn, not only extended its authority over the valley, but 



A MIXED PEOPLE. 



41 



also made the power of its arms felt throughout the adjoining 
regions. We shall now trace the rise and the varied fortunes of 
these empires, and the slow growth of the arts and sciences from 
rude beginnings among the early Chaldseans to their fuller and 
richer development under the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchies. 
The Chaldaeans a Mixed People. — In the earliest times Lower 
Chaldaea was known as Shumir, the Shinar of the Bible, while 
Upper Chaldaea bore the name of Accad. The original inhabi- 
tants of Chaldaea were of Turanian race, and are called Accadians. 




ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CANALS. 



These people laid the basis of civilization in the Euphrates 
valley, so that with them the history of Asian culture begins. 
They brought with them into the valley the art of hieroglyphical 
writing, which later developed into the well-known cuneiform 
system. They also had quite an extensive Hterature, and had 
made considerable advance in the art of building. 

The civilization of the Accadians was given a great impulse by 
the arrival of a Semitic people. These foreigners were nomadic 
in habits, and altogether much less cultured than the Accadians. 



42 CHALD^A. 

Gradually, however, they adopted the arts and literature of the 
people among whom they had settled ; yet they retained their 
own language, which in the course of time superseded the less 
perfect Turanian speech of the original inhabitants ; consequently 
the mixed people, known later as Chaldseans, that arose from the 
blending of the two races, spoke a language essentially the same 
as that used by their northern neighbors, the Semitic Assyrians. 

Sargon (Sharrukin) I. (3800? e.g.). — We know scarcely 
anything about the political affairs of the Accadians until after the 
arrival of the Semites. Then, powerful kings, sometimes of Se- 
mitic and then again of Turanian, or Accadian origin, appear ruling 
in the cities of Accad and Shumir, and the political history of 
Chaldaea begins. 

The first prominent monarch is called Sargon I. (Sharrukin), 
a Semitic king of Agade, one of the great early cities. An inscrip- 
tion recently deciphered makes this king to have reigned as early 
as 3800 B.C. He appears to have been the first great organizer of 
the peoples of the Chaldsean plains. 

Yet not as a warrior, but as a patron and protector of letters, is 
Sargon's name destined to a sure place in history. He classified 
and translated into the Semitic, or Assyrian tongue the religious, 
mythological, and astronomical literature of the Accadians, and 
deposited the books in great libraries, which he estabhshed or 
enlarged, — the oldest and most valuable libraries of the ancient 
world. The scholar Sayce calls him the Chaldsean Solomon. 

Conquest of Chaldaea by the Elamites (2286 b.c). — While 
the Chaldaean kings were ruling in the great cities of Lower Baby- 
lonia, the princes of the Elamites, a people of Turanian race, were 
setting up a rival kingdom to the northeast, just at the foot of the 
hills of Persia. 

In the year 2286 B.C., a king of Elam, Kudur-Nakhunta by 
name, overran Chaldaea, took all the cities founded by Sargon and 
his successors, and from the temples bore off in triumph to his 
capital, Susa, the statues of the Chaldaean gods, and set up in these 
lowland regions what is known as the Elamite Dynasty. 



3S 




45 



&^^' 



■/S 




TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES REGION. \?^ 



3J 



40 



45 



CHALDyEA ECLIPSED BY ASSYRIA. 43 

More than sixteen hundred years after this despoiling of the 
Chaldsean sanctuaries, a king of Nineveh captured the city of 
Susa, and finding there these stolen statues, caused them to be 
restored to their original temples. 

The Chedorlaomer of Genesis, whose contact with the history 
of the Jewish patriarch Abraham has caused his name to be 
handed down to our own times in the records of the Hebrew 
people, is believed to have been the son and successor of Kudur- 
Nakhunta. 

Chaldaea eclipsed by Assyria. — After the Elamite princes had 
maintained a more or less perfect dominion over the cities of 
Chaldaea for two or three centuries, their power seems to have 
declined ; and then for several centuries longer, down to about 
1300 B.C., dynasties and kings of which we know very Httle as yet, 
ruled the country. 

During this period, Babylon, gradually rising into prominence, 
overshadowed the more ancient Accadian cities, and became the 
leading city of the land. From it the whole country was destined, 
later, to draw the name by which it is best known — Babylonia. 

Meanwhile a Semitic power had been slowly developing in the 
north. This was the Assyrian empire, the later heart and centre 
of which was the great city of Nineveh. For a long time Assyria 
was simply a province or dependency of the lower kingdom ; but 
about 1300 B.C., the Assyrian monarch Tiglathi-nin conquered 
Babylonia, and Assyria assumed the place that had been so long 
held by Chaldaea. From this time on to the fall of Nineveh in 
606 B.C., the monarchs of this country virtually controlled the 
affairs of Western Asia. 

2. Arts and General Culture. 

Tower-Temples. — In the art of building, the Chald^eans, though 
their edifices fall far short of attaining the perfection exhibited by 
the earliest Egyptian structures, displayed no inconsiderable archi- 
tectural knowledge and skill. 



44 CHALD^A. 

The most important of their constructions were their tower- 
temples. These were simple in plan, consisting of two or three, 
terraces, or stages, placed one upon another so as to form a sort 
of rude pyramid. The material used in their construction was 
chiefly sun-dried brick. The edifice was sometimes protected by 
outer courses of burnt brick. The temple proper surmounted the 
upper platform. 

All these tower-temples have crumbled into vast mounds, with 
only here and there a projecting mass of masonry to distinguish 
them from natural hills, for which they were at first mistaken. 

Cuneiform Writing. — We have already mentioned the fact 
that the Accadians, when they entered the Euphrates valley, were 
in possession of a system of writing. This was a simple pictorial, 
or hieroglyphical system, which they gradually developed into the 
cuneiform. 

In the cuneiform system, the characters, instead of being formed 
of unbroken lines, are composed of wedge-like marks ; hence the 
name (from ameus, a wedge). This form, according to the 
scholar Sayce, arose when the Accadians, having entered the low 
country, substituted tablets of clay for the papyrus or other similar 
material which they had formerly used. The characters were im- 
pressed upon the soft tablet by means of a triangular writing- 
instrument, which gave them their peculiar wedge-shaped form. 

The cuneiform mode of writing, improved and simplified by the 
Assyrians and the Persians, was in use about two thousand years, 
being employed by the nations in and near the Euphrates basin, 
down to the time of the conquest of the East by the Macedonians. 

Books and Libraries. — The books of the Chaldseans were 
composed of clay tablets, varying in length from one inch to twelve 
inches, and being about one inch thick. Those holding records 
of special importance, after having been once written over and 
baked, were covered with a thin coating of clay, and then the 
matter was written in duplicate and the tablets again baked. If 
the outer writing were defaced by accident or altered by design, 
the removal of the outer coating would at once show the true text. 



THE RELIGION. 



45 



The tablets were carefully preserved in great public libraries. 
Even during the Turanian period, before the Semites had entered 
the land, one or more of these collec- 
tions existed in each of the chief cities 
of Accad and Shumir. '' Accad," says 
Sayce, " was the China of Asia. Almost 
every one could read and write." 
Erech was especially renowned for its 
great library, and was known as " the 
City of Books." 

The Religion. — The x\ccadian re- 
ligion, as revealed by the tablets, was 
essentially the same as that held to- 
day by the nomadic Turanian tribes 
of Northern Asia — what is known as 
Shamanism. It consisted in a behef in 
good and evil spirits, of which the latter 
held by far the most prominent place. 
To avert the malign influence of these 
wicked spirits, the Accadians had resort 

to charms and magic rites. The religion of the Semites was a 
form of Sabasanism, — that is, a worship of the heavenly bodies, 
— in which the sun was naturally the central object of adoration. 

When the Accadians and the Semites intermingled, their re- 
ligious systems blended to form one of the most influential relig- 
ions of the world — one which spread far and wide under the 
form of Baal worship. There were in the perfected system twelve 
primary gods, at whose head stood II, or Ra. Besides these great 
divinities, there were numerous lesser and local deities. 

There were features of this old Chaldaean religion which were 
destined to exert a wide-spread and potent influence upon the 
minds of men. Out of the Sabsean Semitic element grew astrology, 
the pretended art of forecasting events by the aspect of the stars, 
which was most elaborately and ingeniously developed, until the 
fame of the Chaldaean astrologers was spread throughout the 




CHALD/EAN TABLET. 



46 



CHALD^A. 



ancient world, while the spell of that art held in thraldom the 
mind of mediaeval Europe. 

Out of the Shamanistic element contributed by the Turanian 
Accadians, grew a system of magic and divination which had a 
most profound influence not only upon all the Eastern nations, 
including the Jews, but also upon the later peoples of the West. 
Mediaeval magic and witchcraft were, in large part, an unchanged 
inheritance from Chaldaea. 

The Chaldsean Genesis. — The cosmological myths of the Chal- 
daeans, that is, their stories of the origin of things, are remarkably 
like the first chapters of Genesis. 




CHALD/EAN TABLET WITH PARTS OF THE DELUGE LEGEND. 



The discoveries and patient labors of various scholars have re- 
produced, in a more or less perfect form, from the legendary 
tablets, the Chaldaean account of the Creation of the World, of an 
ancestral Paradise and the Tree of Life with its angel guardians, 
of the Deluge, and of the Tower of Babel.^ 

The Chaldaean Epic of Izdubar. — Beside their cosmological 

1 Consult especially George Smith's The ChaldLean Accotint of Genesis ; 
see also Records of the Past, Vol. VII. pp. 127, 131. 



THE CHALDEAN EPIC OF IZDUBAR. 47 

myths, the Chaldaeans had a vast number of so-called heroic and 
nature myths. The most noted of these form what is known as 
the Epic of Izdubar (Nimrod?), which is doubtless the oldest 
epic of the race. This is in twelve parts, and is really a solar 
myth, which recounts the twelve labors of the sun in his yearly 
passage through the twelve signs of the Chaldsean zodiac. 

This epic was carried to the West, by the way of Phoenicia and 
Asia Minor, and played a great part in the mythology of the 
Greeks and Romans. "The twelve labors of Heracles may be 
traced back to the adventures of Gisdhubar [Izdubar] as recorded 
in the twelve books of the great epic of Chaldgea." (Sayce.) 

Science. — In astronomy and arithmetic the Chaldaeans made 
substantial progress. The clear sky and unbroken horizon of the 
Chaldsean plains, lending an unusually brilliant aspect to the 
heavens, naturally led the Chaldseans to the study of the stars. 
They early divided the zodiac into twelve signs, and named the 
zodiacal constellations, a memorial of their astronomical attain- 
ments which will remain forever inscribed upon the great circle of 
the heavens ; they foretold eclipses, constructed sun-dials of vari- 
ous patterns, divided the year into twelve months, and the day 
and night into twelve hours each, and invented or devised the 
week of seven days, the number of days in the week being deter- 
mined by the course of the moon. "The 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, 
and 28th days of the lunar month were kept like the Jewish Sab- 
bath, and were actually so named in Assyria." 

In arithmetic, also, the Chaldseans made considerable advance. 
A tablet has been found which contains the squares and cubes of 
the numbers from one to sixty. 

Conclusion. — This hasty glance at the beginnings of civiliza- 
tion among the primitive peoples of the Euphrates valley, will 
serve to give us at least some little idea of how much modern cul- 
ture owes to the old Chaldaeans. We may say that Chaldaea was 
one of the main sources — Egypt was the other — of the stream of 
universal history. 



48 ASSYRIA, 



CHAPTER IV. 

ASSYRIA. 
I . Political History. 

Tiglath-Pileser I. (1130-1110 b.c). — It is not until about 
two centuries after the conquest of Chaldsea by the iVssyrian prince 
Tiglathi-Nin (see p. 43), that we find a sovereign of renown at the 
head of Assyrian affairs. This was Tiglath-Pileser I., who came to 
the throne about 11 30 b.c. The royal records detail at great 
length his numerous war expeditions, and describe minutely the 
great temples which he constructed. 

For the two centuries following the reign of Tiglath-Pileser, 
Assyria is quite lost to history ; then it is again raised into prom- 
inence by two or three strong kings ; after which it once more 
almost " drops below the historical horizon." 

Tiglath-Pileser II. (745-727 b.c). — With this king, who was 
a usurper, begins what is known as the Second Empire. He was 
a man of great energy and of undoubted mihtary talent, — for by 
him the Assyrian power was once more extended over the greater 
part of Southwestern Asia. 

But what renders the reign of this king a landmark in Assyrian 
history, is the fact that he was not a mere conqueror like his pred- 
ecessors, but a political organizer of great capacity. He laid the 
basis of the power and glory of the great kings who followed him 
upon the Assyrian throne. 

Sargon (722-705 b.c). — Sargon was one of the greatest con- 
querors and builders of the Second Empire. In 722 B.C., he took 
Samaria and carried away the Ten Tribes into captivity beyond 
the Tigris. The larger part of the captives were scattered among 
the Median towns, where they became so mingled with the native 



SENNACHERIB. 49 

population as to be inquired after even to this day as the " lost 
tribes." 

During this reign the Egyptians and their allies, in the first en- 
counter (the battle of Raphia, 720 b.c.) between the empires of 
the Euphrates and the Nile valley, suffered a severe defeat, and 
the ancient kingdom of the Pharaohs became tributary to As- 
syria. 

Sargon was a famous builder. Near the foot of the Persian hills 
he founded a large city, which he named for himself; and there 
he erected a royal residence, described in the inscriptions as " a 
palace of incomparable magnificence," the site of which is now 
preserved by the vast mounds of Khorsabad. 

Sennacherib (705-681 b.c). — Sennacherib, the son of Sargon, 
came to the throne 705 B.C. We must accord to him the first 
place of renown among all the great names of the Assyrian Em- 
pire. His name, connected as it is with the story of the Jews, and 
with many of the most wonderful discoveries among the ruined 
palaces of Nineveh, has become as famiUar to the ear as that of 
Nebuchadnezzar in the story of Babylon. 

The fulness of the royal inscriptions of this reign enables us to 
permit Sennacherib to tell us in his own words of his great works 
and military expeditions. Respecting the decoration of Nineveh, 
he says : " I raised again all the edifices of Nineveh, my royal 
city ; I reconstructed all its old streets, and widened those that 
were too narrow. I have made the whole town a city shining like 
the sun." 

Concerning an expedition against Hezekiah, king of Judah, he 
says : " I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities ; and of the 
smaller towns which were scattered about I took and plundered a 
countless number. And from these places I captured and carried 
off as spoil 200,150 people, old and young, male and female, to- 
gether with horses and mares, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, 
a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jeru- 
salem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round 



50 



ASSYJilA. 



the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the 
gates, so as to prevent escape." ^ 

While Sennacherib was besieging Jerusalem, the king of Egypt 
appeareci in the field in the south with aid for Hezekiah. This 
caused Sennacherib to draw off his forces from the siege to meet 
the new enemy ; but near the frontiers of Egypt the Assyrian host, 
according to the Hebrew account, was smitten by " the angel of 
the Lord," ^ and the king returned with a shattered army and with- 
out glory to his capital, Nineveh. 

Sennacherib employed the closing years of his reign in the dig- 
ging of canals, and in the erection of a splendid palace at Nineveh. 
He was finally murdered by his own sons. 




SIEGE OF A CITY, SHOWING USE OF BATTERING-RAM. (From Nimrud.) 

Asshur-bani-pal (668-626? b.c). — This king, the Sardanapa- 
lus of the Greeks, is distinguished for his magnificent patronage of 
art and literature. During his reign Assyria enjoyed her Augustan 
age. 

But Asshur-bani-pal was also possessed of a warlike spirit. He 



1 Rawlinson's Ajtcieni Monarchies, Vol. II. p. i6i. 

2 This expression is a Hebraism, meaning often any physical cause of de- 
struction, as a plague or storm. In the present case, the destroying agency 
was probably a pestilence. 



ESARHADDON 11. 51 

broke to pieces, with terrible energy, in swift campaigns, the en- 
emies of his empire. All the scenes of his sieges and battles 
he caused to be sculptured on the walls of his palace at Nineveh. 
These pictured panels are now in the British Museum. They are 
a perfect Iliad in stone. 

Saracus, or Esarhaddon II. (?-6o6 b.c). — Saracus was the 
last of the long line of Assyrian kings. His reign was filled with 
misfortunes for himself and his kingdom. For nearly or quite seven 
centuries the Ninevite kings had lorded it over the East. There 
was scarcely a state in all Western Asia that had not, during this 
time, felt the weight of their conquering arms ; scarcely a people 
that had not suffered their cruel punishments, or tasted the bitter- 
ness of their servitude. 

But now swift misfortunes were bearing down upon the oppressor 
from every quarter. The Scythian hordes, breaking through the 
mountain gates on the north, spread a new terror throughout the 
upper Assyrian provinces ; from the mountain defiles on the east 
issued the armies of the recent-grown empire of the Aryan Medes, 
led by the renowned Cyaxares ; from the southern lowlands, anx- 
ious to aid in the overthrow of the hated oppressor, the Baby- 
lonians, led by the youthful Nebuchadnezzar, the son of the traitor 
viceroy Nabopolassar, joined, it appears, the Medes as allies, and 
together they laid close siege to the Assyrian capital. 

The operations of the besiegers seem to have been aided by an 
unusual inundation of the Tigris, which undermined a section of 
the city walls. At all events the place was taken, and dominion 
passed away forever from the proud capital^ (606 B.C.). Two 
hundred years later, when Xenophon with his Ten Thousand 
Greeks, in his memorable retreat (see p. 156), passed the spot, 
the once great city was a crumbling mass of ruins, of which he 
could not even learn the name. 

1 Saracus, in his despair, is said to have erected a funeral pyre within one 
of the courts of his palace, and, mounting the pile with the members of his 
family, to have perished with there in the flames; but this is doubtless a poeti- 
cal embellishment of the story. 



5Z 



ASSYRIA. 



2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture. 

Religion. — The Assyrians were Semites, and as such they 
possessed the deep rehgious spirit that has ahvays distinguished 
the peoples of this family. In this respect they were very much 
like the Hebrews. The wars which the Assyrian monarchs waged 
were not alone wars of conquest, but were, in a certain sense, cru- 
sades made for the purpose of extending the worship and author- 
ity of the gods of Assyria. They have been likened to the wars of 
the Hebrew kings, and again to the conquests of the Saracens. 

As with the wars, so was it with the architectural works of 
these sovereigns. Greater attention, indeed, was paid to the 
palace in Assyria than in Babylonia ; yet the inscriptions, as 
well as the ruins, of the upper country attest that the erection 
and adornment of the temples of the gods were matters of 
anxious and constant care on the part of the Assyrian monarchs. 
Their accounts of the construction and dedication of temples 
for their gods afford striking parallels to the Bible account 
of the building of the temple at Jerusalem by King Solomon. 

Not less promi- 



nently manifested is 
the religious spirit 
of these kings in 
what we may call 
their sacred litera- 
ture, which is filled 
with prayers singu- 
larly like those of 
the Old Testament. 
As to the Assyrian 
deities and their wor- 
ship, these were in all their essential characteristics so similar to 
those of the later Chaldaean system, already described (see p. 45), 
that any detailed account of them here is unnecessary. One differ- 
ence, however, in the two systems should be noted. The place 




EMBLEM OF ASSHUR. 



CRUELTY OF THE ASSYRL4NS. 



:>:> 



occupied by II, or Ra, as the head of the Chaldaean deities, 
is in Assyria given to the national god Asshiir, whose emblem 
was a winged circle with the figure of a man within, the whole 
perhaps symbolizing, according to Rawlinson, eternity, omnipres- 
ence, and wisdom. 

Cruelty of the Assyrians. — The Assyrians have been called 
the " Romans of Asia." They were a proud, martial, cruel, and 
unrelenting race. Although possessing, as we have just noticed, 
a deep and genuine religious feeling, still the Assyrian monarchs 
often displayed in their treatment of prisoners the disposition of 
savages. In common with most Asiatics, they had no respect for 
the body, but subjected captives to the most terrible mutilations. 
The sculptured marbles taken from the palaces exhibit the cruel 




ASSYRIANS FLAYING THEIR PRISONERS ALIVE. 



tortures inflicted upon prisoners ; kings are being led before their 
conqueror by means of hooks thrust through one or both lips ; ^ 
other prisoners are being flayed alive ; the eyes of some are being 
bored out with the point of a spear ; and still others are having 
their tongues torn out. 

An inscription by Asshur-nasir-pal, found in one of the palaces 
at Nimrud, runs as follows : " Their men, young and old, I took 
prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and hands ; of others I cut 
off the noses, ears, and lips ; of the young men's ears I made a 

1 See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10-13 (Revised Version). 



54 



ASSYRIA. 



heap ; of the old men's heads I built a tower. I exposed their 
heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and 
the female children I burned in the flames." 

Royal Sports. — The Assyrian king gloried in being, like the 
great Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord." The monu- 
ments are covered with sculptures that represent the king engaged 
in the favorite royal sport. Asshur-izer-pal had at Nineveh a men- 
agerie, or hunting-park, filled with various animals, many of which 
were sent him as tribute by vassal princes. 




LION HUNT. (From Nineveh.) 



Remains of Assyrian Cities. — Enormous grass-grown mounds, 
enclosed by crumbled ramparts, alone mark the sites of the great 
cities of the Assyrian kings. The character of the remains arises 
from the nature of the building material. City walls, palaces, and 
temples were constructed chiefly of sun-dried bricks, so that the 
generation that raised them had scarcely passed away before they 
began to sink down into heaps of rubbish. The rains of many 
centuries have beaten down and deeply furrowed these mounds, 
while the grass has crept over them and made green alike the 
palaces of the kings and the temples of the gods.^ 

1 Lying upon the left bank of the Upper Tigris ai?e two enormous mounds 
surrounded by heavy earthen ramparts, about eight miles in circuit. This is 
the site of ancient Nineveh, the immense enclosing ridges being the ruined city 
walls. These ramparts are still, in their crumbled condition, about fifty feet 



PALACE-MOUNDS AND PALACES. 



55 



Palace-Mounds and Palaces. — In order to give a certain dig- 
nity to the royal residence, to secure the fresh breezes, and to ren- 
der them more easily defended, the Assyrians, as well as the Baby- 
lonians and the Persians, built their palaces upon lofty artificial 
terraces, or platforms. These eminences, which appear like natural, 
flat-topped hills, were constructed with an almost incredible expen- 
diture of human labor. The great palace-mound at Nineveh, called 
by the natives Koyunjik, covers an area of one hundred acres, and 




RESTORATION OF A COURT IN SARGON'S PALACE AT KHORSABAD. 

(After Fergusson.) 

is from seventy to ninety feet high. Out of the material compos- 
ing it could be built four pyramids as large as that of Cheops. 
Upon this mound stood several of the most splendid palaces of 
the Ninevite kings. 

The group of buildings constituting the royal residence was 

high, and average about one hundred and fifty in width. The lower part of 
the wall was constructed of solid stone masonry; the upper portion of dried 
brick. This upper and frailer part, crumbling into earth, has completely buried 
the stone basement. The Turks of to-day quarry the stone from these old 
walls for their buildings. 



56 



ASSYRIA. 



often of enormous extent ; the various courts, halls, corridors, and 
chambers of the Palace of Sennacherib, which surmounted the 
great platform at Nineveh, covered an area of over ten acres. 
The palaces were usually one-storied. The walls, constructed chiefly 
of dried brick, were immensely thick and heavy. The rooms and 
galleries were plastered with stucco, or panelled with precious woods, 
or hned with enamelled bricks. The main halls, however, and the 
great open courts were faced with slabs of alabaster, covered with 
sculptures and inscriptions, the illustrated narrative of the wars and 
labors of the monarch. There were two miles of such sculptured 
panelling at Koyunjik. At the portals of the palace, to guard the 
approach, were stationed the colossal human-headed bulls. 




SCULPTURES FROM A GATEWAY AT KHORSABAD. 



An important adjunct of the palace was the temple, a copy of 
the tower-temples of the Chaldaeans. Its position is marked at 
present by a lofty conical mound rising amidst and overlooking 
the palace ruins. 

Upon the decay of the Assyrian palaces, the material forming 
the upper part of the thick walls completely buried and protected 
all the lower portion of the structure. In this way their sculptures 
and inscriptions have been preserved through so many centuries, 
till brought to light by the recent excavations of French and 
English antiquarians. 



rilK ROYAL LIBRARY. 57 

The Royal Library at Nineveh. — Within the palace of Asshur- 
bani-pal at Nineveh, Layard discovered what is known as the 
Royal Library. There were two chambers, the floors of which 
were heaped with books, like the Chaldaean tablets already de- 
scribed. The number of books in the collection has been esti- 
mated at ten thousand. The writing upon some of the tablets is 
so minute that it cannot be read without the aid of a magnifying 
glass. We learn from the inscriptions that a librarian had charge 
of the collection. Catalogues of the books have been found, made 
out on clay tablets. The library was open to the public, for an 
inscription says, " I [Asshur-bani-pal] wrote upon the tablets ; I 
placed them in my palace for the instruction of my people." 

Asshur-bani-pal, as we have already learned, was the Augustus 
of Assyria. It was under his patronage and direction that most 
of the books were prepared and placed in the Ninevite collection. 
The greater part of these were copies of older Chaldaean tablets ; 
for the literature of the Assyrians, as well as their arts and sciences, 
was borrowed almost in a body from the Chaldaeans. All the old 
libraries of the low country were ransacked, and copies of their 
tablets made for the Royal Library at Nineveh. Rare treasures 
were secured from the libraries founded or enlarged by Sargon of 
Agade (see p. 42). In this way was preserved the most valuable 
portion of the early Chaldaean literature, which would otherwise 
have been lost to the world. 

The tablets embrace a great variety of subjects ; the larger part, 
however, are lexicons and treatises on grammar, and various other 
works intended as text-books for scholars. Perhaps the most 
curious of the tablets yet found are notes issued by the govern- 
ment, and made redeemable in gold and silver on presentation at 
the king's treasury. 

From one part of the library, which seems to have been the 
archives proper, were taken copies of treaties, reports of officers 
of the government, deeds, wills, mortgages, and contracts. One 
tablet, known as "^ the Will of Sennacherib," conveys to certain 
priests some personal property to be held in trust for one of his 
sons. This is the oldest will in existence. 



58 BABYLONIA. 



CHAPTER V. 

BABYLONIA. 

Babylonian Affairs from 1300 to 625 B.C. — During the six 
centuries and more that intervened between the conquest of the 
old Chaldsean monarchy by the Assyrian king Tiglathi-Nin and 
the successful revolt of the low countries under Nabopolassar (see 
pp. 43, 51), the Babylonian peoples bore the Assyrian yoke very 
impatiently. Again and again they made violent efforts to throw 
it off; and in several instances they succeeded, and for a time 
enjoyed home rulers. But for the most part the whole country as 
far as the " Sea," as the Persian Gulf is called in the inscriptions, 
was a dependency of the great overshadov/ing empire of the north. 

Nabopolassar (625-604 b.c). — Nabopolassar was the first 
king of what is called the New Babylonian Monarchy. When 
troubles and misfortunes began to thicken about the last Assyrian 
king, Saracus, he intrusted to the care of Nabopolassar, as his 
viceroy, the towns and provinces of the South. The chance now 
presented of obtaining a crown proved too great a temptation 
for the satrap's fidelity to his master. He revolted and became 
independent (625 b.c). Later, he entered into an alliance with 
the Median king, Cyaxares, against his former sovereign (see p. 
51). Through the overthrow of Nineveh and the break-up of 
the Assyrian Empire, the new Babylonian kingdom received large 
accessions of territory. 

Nebuchadnezzar (604-561 b.c). — Nabopolassar was followed 
by his renowned son Nebuchadnezzar, whose oppressive wars and 
gigantic architectural works rendered Babylon at once the scourge 
and the wonder of the ancient world. 

Jerusalem, having repeatedly revolted, was finally taken and 
sacked. The temple was stripped of its sacred vessels of silver 



NABOPOLASSAR. 59 

and gold, which were carried away to Babylon, and the temple 
itself with the adjoining palace was given to the flames ; the people, 
save a miserable remnant, were also borne away into the " Great 
Captivity" (586 B.C.). 

With Jerusalem subdued, Nebuchadnezzar pushed with all his 
forces the siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre, whose investment 
had been commenced several years before. In striking language 
the prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxix. 18) describes the length and 
hardness of the siege : " Every head was made bald, and every 
shoulder was peeled." After a siege of thirteen years, the city 
seems to have fallen into the hands of the Babylonian king, and 
his authority was now undisputed from the Zagros Mountains to 
the Mediterranean. 

The numerous captives of his many wars, embracing peoples of 
almost every nation in Western Asia, enabled Nebuchadnezzar to 
rival even the Pharaohs in the execution of enormous works re- 
quiring an immense expenditure of human labor. Among his 
works were the Great Palace in the royal quarter of the city ; the 
celebrated Hanging Gardens ; and gigantic reservoirs, canals, and 
various engineering works, embracing a vast system of irrigation 
that reached every part of Babylonia. 

In addition to all these works, the indefatigable monarch seems 
to have either rebuilt or repaired almost every city and temple 
throughout the entire country. There are said to be at least a 
hundred sites in the tract immediately about Babylon which give 
evidence, by inscribed bricks bearing his legend, of the marvellous 
activity and energy of this monarch. 

In the midst of all these gigantic undertakings, surrounded by 
a brilliant court of councillors and flatterers, the reason of the king 
was suddenly and mysteriously clouded.^ After a period the cloud 

^ " Nebuchadnezzar fell a victim to that mental aberration which has often 
proved the penalty of despotism, but in the strange and degrading form to 
which physicians have given the name of lycanthropy ; in which the patient, 
fancying himself a beast, rejects clothing and ordinary food, and even (as in 
this case) the shelter of a roof, ceases to use articulate speech, and sometimes 
persists in going on all-fours." — Smith's Ancient History of the East, p. 357. 



60 BABYLONIA. 

passed away, " the glory of his kingdom, his honor, and bright- 
ness returned unto him." But it was the splendor of the evening ; 
for the old monarch soon after died at the age of eighty, worn out 
by the toils and cares of a reign of forty-three years, the longest, 
most memorable, and instructive in the annals of the Babylonian 
or Assyrian kings. 

The Fall of Babylon. — In 555 b.c, Nabonadius, the last king 
of Babylon, began his reign. He seems to have associated with 
himself in the government his son Belshazzar, who shared with his 
father the duties and honors of royalty, apparently on terms of 
equal co-sovereignty. 

. To the east of the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, beyond 
the ranges of the Zagros, there had been growing up an Aryan 
kingdom, the Medo-Persian, which, at the time now reached by 
us, had excited by its aggressive spirit the alarm of all the nations 
of Western Asia. For purposes of mutual defence, the king of 
Babylon, and Croesus, the well-known monarch of Lydia, a state 
of Asia Minor, formed an alliance against Cyrus, the strong and 
ambitious sovereign of the Medes and Persians. This league 
awakened the resentment of Cyrus, and, after punishing Croesus 
and depriving him of his kingdom (see p. 75), he collected his 
forces to chastise the Babylonian king. 

Anticipating the attack, Nabonadius had strengthened the de- 
fences of Babylon, and stationed around it supporting armies. But 
he was able to avert the fatal blow for only a few years. Risking 
a battle in the open field, his army was defeated, and the gates of 
the capital were thrown open to the Persians (538 b.c.).^ 

With the fall of Babylon, the sceptre of dominion, borne for so 
many years by Semitic princes, was given into the hands of the 
Aryan peoples, who were destined, from this time forward, to 
shape the course of events, and control the affairs of civilization. 

^ The device of turning the Euphrates, which Herodotus makes an incident 
of the siege, was not resorted to by Cyrus; but it seems that a httle later (in 
521-519 B.C.), the city, having revolted, was actually taken in this way by the 
Persian king Darius. Herodotus confused the two events. 



GREAT EDIFICES. 



61 



The Great Edifices of Babylon. — The deep impression which 
Babylon produced upon the early Greek travellers was made 
chiefly by her vast architectural works, — her temples, palaces, 
elevated gardens, and great walls. The Hanging Gardens of Neb- 
uchadnezzar and the walls of the city were reckoned among the 
wonders of the world. 

The Babylonians, like their predecessors the Chaldaeans, ac- 
corded to the sacred edifice the place of pre-eminence among 
their architec- 
tural works. 
Sacred archi- 
tecture in the 
time of Neb- 
uchadnezzar 
had changed 
but little from 
the early Chal- 
daean models 
(see p. 44) ; 
save that the 
temples were 
now larger and 
more splen- 
did, being 

made, in the language of the inscriptions, " to shine like the 
sun." The celebrated Temple of the Seven Spheres, at Bor- 
sippa, a suburb of Babylon, may serve as a representative of 
the later Babylonian temples. This structure was a vast pyra- 
mid, rising in seven consecutive stages, or platforms, to a height 
of over one hundred and fifty feet. Each of the stages was 
dedicated to one of the seven planets, or spheres. (The sun 
and moon were reckoned as planets.) The stages sacred to the 
sun and moon were covered respectively with plates of gold and 
silver. The chapel, or shrine proper, surmounted the uppermost 
stage. An inscribed cylinder discovered under the corner of one 




BIRS-NiriRUr 



R I ins of the great Temple of the Seven Spheres, 
near Babylon.) 



6Z BABYLONIA. 

of the stages (the Babylonians ahvays buried records beneath the 
corners of their pubhc edifices), informs us that this temple was 
a restoration by Nebuchadnezzar of a very ancient one, which in 
his day had become, from " extreme old age," a heap of rubbish. 
This edifice in its decay has left one of the grandest and most 
impressive ruins in all the East. 

The Babylonian palaces and palace-mounds, in all essential 
features, were like those of the Assyrians, already described. 

The so-called Hanging Gardens excited the greatest admiration 
of the ancient Greek visitors to Babylon. They were constructed 
by Nebuchadnezzar, to please his wife Amytis, who, tired of the 
monotony of the Babylonian plains, longed for the mountain 
scenery of her native Media. The gardens were probably built 
somewhat in the form of the tower-temples, the successive stages 
being covered with earth, and beautified with rare plants and 
trees, so as to simulate the appearance of a mountain rising in 
cultivated terraces towards the sky. 

Under the later kings, Babylon was surrounded with stupendous 
walls. Herodotus affirms that these defences enclosed an area 
just fourteen miles square. A recently discovered inscription 
corroborates the statement of the historian. The object in enclos- 
ing such an enormous district seems to have been to bring sufficient 
arable ground within the defences to support the inhabitants in 
case of a protracted siege. No certain traces of these great ram- 
parts can now be found. 



THE PATRIARCHAL AGE. 63 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE HEBREWS. 

The Patriarchal Age. — Hebrew history begins with the depart- 
ure of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, about 2000 B.C. The 
story of Abraham and his nephew Lot, of Isaac and his sons Jacob 
and Esau, of the sojourn of the descendants of Jacob in Egypt, of 
the Exodus, of the conquest of Canaan and the apportionment of 
the land among the twelve tribes of Israel, — all this marvellous 
story is told in the Hebrew Scriptures with a charm and simplicity 
that have made it the familiar possession of childhood. 

The Judges (from about 1300 to 1095 b.c). — Along period 
of anarchy and dissension followed the conquest and settlement of 
Canaan by the Hebrews. " There was no king in Israel : every 
man did that which was right in his own eyes." During this time 
there arose a line of national heroes, such as Gideon, Jephthah, 
and Samson, whose deeds of valor and daring, and the timely 
deliverance they wrought for the tribes of Israel from their foes, 
caused their names to be handed down with grateful remembrance 
to following ages. 

These popular leaders were called Judges because they usually 
exercised judicial functions, acting as arbiters between the different 
tribes, as well as between man and man. Their exploits are nar- 
rated in the Book of Judges, which is a collection of the fragmen- 
tary, yet always interesting, traditions of this early and heroic period 
of the nation's life. The last of the Judges was Samuel, whose life 
embraces the close of the anarchical age and the beginning of the 
monarchy. 

Founding of the Hebrew Monarchy (about 1095 e.g.). — Dur- 
ing the period of the Judges, the tribes of Israel were united by no 
central government. Their union was nothing more than a league. 



64 THE HEBREWS. 

or confederation, which has been compared to the Saxon Hep- 
tarchy in England. But the common dangers to which they were 
exposed from the attacks of the half-subdued Canaanitish tribes 
about them, and the example of the great kingdoms of Egypt and 
Assyria, led the people to begin to think of the advantages of a 
closer union and a stronger government. Consequently the repub- 
lic, or confederation, was changed into a kingdom, and Saul, of 
the tribe of Benjamin, a man chosen in part because of his com- 
manding stature and royal aspect, was made king of the new 
monarchy (about 1095 B.C.). 

The king was successful in subduing the enemies of the Hebrews, 
and consolidated the tribes and settled the affairs of the new state. 
But towards the close of his reign, his reason became disturbed : 
fits of gloom and despondency passed into actual insanity, which 
clouded the closing years of his life. At last he and his three 
sons fell in battle with the PhiHstines upon Mount Gilboa (about 
1055 B.C.). 

The Reign of David (about 1055-1015 b.c.). — Upon the death 
of Saul, David, son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, who had been 
previously anointed and encouraged to expect the crown by the 
high-priest Samuel, assumed the sceptre. This warhke king trans- 
formed the pastoral and half-civihzed tribes into a conquering 
people, and, in imitation of the monarchs of the Nile and the 
Euphrates, extended the limits of his empire in every direction, 
and waged wars of extermination against the troublesome tribes 
of Moab and Edom. 

Poet as well as warrior, David enriched the literature of his own 
nation and of the world with lyric songs that breathe such a spirit 
of devotion and trust that they have been ever since his day the 
source of comfort and inspiration to thousands.^ He had in mind 
to build at Jerusalem, his capital city, a magnificent temple, and 
spent the latter years of his life in collecting material for this pur- 

1 The authorship of the different psalms is a matter of debate, yet critics 
are very nearly agreed in ascribing the composition of at least a considerable 
number of them to David. 



THE REIGN OF SOLOMON. 



65 



pose. In dying, he left the crown to Solomon, his youngest son, 
his eldest, Absalom, having been slain in a revolt against his father, 
and the second, Adonijah, having been excluded from the succes- 
sion for a similar crime. 

The Reign of Solomon (about 1015-975 b.c). — Solomon did 
not possess his father's talent for mihtary affairs, but was a liberal 
patron of architecture, commerce, and learning. He erected, 
with the utmost magnificence of adornment, the temple at Jeru- 
salem, planned by his father David. King Hiram of Tyre, who 




THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. (A Restoration.) 

was a close friend of the Hebrew monarch, aided him in this un- 
dertaking by supplying him with the celebrated cedar of Lebanon, 
and with Tyrian architects, the most skilled workmen at that time 
in the world. The dedication ceremonies upon the completion of 
the building were most imposing and impressive. Thenceforth 
this temple was the centre of the Jewish worship and of the 
national life. 

For the purpose of extending his commerce, Solomon built fleets 
upon the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The most remote 
regions of Asia and Africa were visited by his ships, and their rich 
and wonderful products made to contribute to the wealth and glory 
of his kingdom. 



66 THE HEBREWS. 

Solomon maintained one of the most magnificent courts ever 
held by an oriental sovereign. When the Queen of Sheba, attracted 
by the reports of his glory, came from Southern Arabia to visit the 
monarch, she exclaimed, " The half was not told me." He was 
the wisest king of the East. His proverbs are famous specimens 
of sententious wisdom. He was versed, too, in botany, being 
acquainted with plants and trees " from the hyssop upon the wall 
to the cedar of Lebanon." 

But wise as was Solomon in his words, his life was far from 
being either admirable or prudent. In conformity with Asiatic 
custom, he had many wives — seven hundred, we are told — of 
different nationalities and religions. Through their persuasion the 
old monarch himself fell into idolatry, which turned from him 
the affections of his best subjects, and prepared the way for the 
dissensions and wars that followed his death. 

The Division of the Kingdom (about 975 b.c). — The reign 
of Solomon was brilliant, yet disastrous in the end to the Hebrew 
monarchy. In order to carry on his vast undertakings, he had 
laid most oppressive taxes upon his people. When Rehoboam, 
his son, succeeded to his father's place, the people entreated him 
to lighten the taxes that were making their very lives a burden. 
Influenced by young and unwise counsellors, he replied to the 
petition with haste and insolence : "My father," said he, "chas- 
tised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." 
Immediately all the tribes, save Judah and Benjamin, rose in 
revolt, and succeeded in setting up, to the north of Jerusalem, 
a rival kingdom, with Jeroboam as its first king. This northern 
state, with Samaria as its capital, became known as the Kingdom 
of Israel ; the southern, of which Jerusalem remained the capital, 
was called the Kingdom of Judah. 

Thus was torn in twain the empire of David and Solomon. 
United, the tribes might have maintained an empire capable of 
offering successful resistance to the encroachments of the powerful 
and ambitious monarchs about them. But now the land becomes 
an easy prey to the spoiler. It is henceforth the pathway of the 



THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. 67 

conquering armies of the Nile and the Euphrates. Between the 
powerful monarchies of these regions, as between an upper and 
nether millstone, the little kingdoms are destined, one after the 
other, to be ground to pieces. 

The Kingdom of Israel (9757-722 b.c). — The kingdom of 
the Ten Tribes maintained an existence for about two hundred 
and fifty years. Its story is instructive and sad. Many passages 
of its history are recitals of the struggles between the pure worship 
of Jehovah and the idolatrous service of the deities introduced 
from the surrounding nations. The cause of the religion of Jeho- 
vah, as the tribes of Israel had received it from the patriarch 
Abraham and the lawgiver Moses, was boldly espoused and upheld 
by a line of the most remarkable teachers and prophets produced 
by the Hebrew race, among whom Elijah and Elisha stand pre- 
eminent. 

The little kingdom was at last overwhelmed by the Assyrian 
power. This happened 722 B.C., when Samaria, as we- have 
already narrated in the history of Assyria, was captured by Sargon, 
king of Nineveh, and the Ten Tribes were carried away into cap- 
tivity beyond the Euphrates (see p. 48). From this time they 
are quite lost to history. 

The country, left nearly vacant by this wholesale deportation 
of its inhabitants, was filled with other subjects or captives of the 
Assyrian king. The descendants of these, mingled with the few 
Jews of the poorer class that were still left in the country, formed 
the Samaritans of the time of Christ. 

The Kingdom of Judah (975?-586 b.c). — This little king- 
dom, torn by internal religious dissensions, as was its rival kingdom 
of the north, and often on the very verge of ruin from Egyptian or 
Assyrian armies, maintained an independent existence for about 
four centuries. During this period, a line of eighteen kings, of 
most diverse character, sat upon the throne. Upon the exten- 
sion of the power of Babylon to the west, Jerusalem was forced to 
acknowledge the suzerainty of the Babylonian kings. 

The kingdom at last shared the fate of its northern rival. Neb- 



68 THE HEBREWS. 

uchadnezzar, in revenge for an uprising of the Jews, besieged 
and captured Jerusalem, and carried away a large part of the 
people, and their king Zedekiah, into captivity at Babylon (see p. 
58). This event virtually ended the separate and pohtical life of 
the Hebrew race (586 B.C.). Henceforth Judah constituted 
simply a province of the empires — Babylonian, Persian, Mace- 
donian, and Roman — which successively held sway over the 
regions of Western Asia, with, however, just one flicker of national 
life under the Maccabees, during a part of the two centuries pre- 
ceding the birth of Christ. 

It only remains to mention those succeeding events which be- 
long rather to the story of the Jews as a people than as a nation. 
Upon the capture of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus (see p. 
60), that monarch, who was kindly disposed towards the Jews that 
he there found captives, permitted them to return to Jerusalem 
and restore the temple. Jerusalem thus became again the centre 
of the old Hebrew worship, and, although shorn of national glory, * 
continued to be the sacred centre of the ancient faith till the 
second generation after Christ. Then, in chastisement for re- 
peated revolts, the city was laid in ruins by the Romans ; while 
vast numbers of the inhabitants — some authorities say over one 
million — were slain, or perished by famine, and the remnant were 
driven into exile to different lands. 

Thus, by a series of unparalleled calamities and persecutions, 
the descendants of Abraham were " sifted among all nations " ; 
but to this day they cling with a strange devotion and loyalty to 
the simple faith of their fathers. 

Hebrew Religion and Literature. 

The ancient Hebrews made little or no contribution to science. 
They produced no new order of architecture. In sculpture they 
did nothing : their rehgion forbade their making "graven images." 
Their mission was to teach religion. Here they have been the 
instructors of the world. Their literature is a religious one ; for 



RELIGION AND LITERATURE. 69 

literature with them was simply a medium for the conveyance of 
religious instruction and the awakening of devotional feeling. 

The Hebrew religion, a pure monotheism, the teachings of a 
long hne of holy men — patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets, and priests 
— stretching from Abraham down to the fifth century B.C., is con- 
tained in the sacred books of the Old Testament Scriptures. In 
these ancient writings, patriarchal traditions, histories, dramas, 
poems, prophecies, and personal narratives blend in a wonderful 
mosaic, which pictures with vivid and grand effect the various 
migrations, the deliverances, the calamities — all the events and 
religious experiences in the checkered life of the Chosen People. 

Out of this old exclusive, formal Hebrew religion, transformed 
and spiritualized by the Great Teacher, grew the Christian faith. 
Out of the Old Testament arose the New, which we should think 
of as a part of Hebrew Hterature : for although written in the 
Greek language, and long after the close of the political life of the 
Jewish nation, still it is essentially Hebrew in thought and doc- 
trine, and the supplement and crown of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Besides the Sacred Scriptures, called collectively, by way of 
pre-eminence, the Bible (The Book), it remains to mention espe- 
cially the Apocrypha, embracing a number of books that were 
composed after the decline of the prophetic spirit, and which 
show traces, as indeed do several of the later books of the Bible, 
of the influence of Persian and Greek thought. These books are 
generally regarded by the Jews and Protestants as uncanonical, 
but in the main are considered by the Roman Catholics as pos- 
sessing equal authority with the other books of the Bible. 

Neither should we fail to mention the Talmud, a collection of 
""Hebrew customs and traditions, with the comments thereupon of 
the rabbis, a work held by most Jews next in sacredness to the 
Holy Book ; the writings of Philo, an illustrious rabbi who lived at 
Alexandria just before the birth of Christ ; and the Antiquities of 
the Jews and the Jewish Wars by the historian Josephus, who 
lived and wrote about the time of the taking of Jerusalem by 
Titus ; that is, during the latter part of the first century after Christ. 



70 THE PHCENICIANS, 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PHOENICIANS. 

The Land and the People. — Ancient Phoenicia embraced a 
Uttle strip of broken sea-coast lying between the Mediterranean 
and the ranges of Mount Lebanon. One of the most noted pro- 
ductions of the country was the fine fir-timber cut from the forests 
that crowned the lofty ranges of the Lebanon Mountains. The 
" cedar of Lebanon" holds a prominent place both in the history 
and the poetry of the East. 

Another celebrated product of the country was the Tyrian 
purple, which was obtained from several varieties of the murex, a 
species of shell-fish, secured at first along the Phoenician coast, 
but later sought in distant waters, especially in the Grecian seas. 

The Phoenicians were of Semitic race, and of close kin to most 
of the so-called Canaanitish tribes. They were a maritime and 
trading people. 

Tyre and Sidon. — The various Phoenician cities never coalesced 
to form a true nation. They simply constituted a sort of league, 
or confederacy, the petty states of which generally acknowledged 
the leadership of Tyre or of Sidon, the two chief cities. The 
place of supremacy in the confederation was at first held by Sidon, 
but later by Tyre. 

From the nth to the 4th century B.C., Tyre controlled, almost 
without dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phoenicia. 
During this time the maritime enterprise and energy of her mer- 
chants spread the fame of the little island-capital throughout 
the world. She was queen and mistress of the Mediterranean. 

During all the last centuries of her existence, Phoenicia was, for 
the most part, tributary to one or another of the great monarchies 
about her. She acknowledged in turn the suzerainty of the Assyr- 



PHiENICIAN COMMERCE. 71 

ian, the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian, and the Macedo- 
nian kings. Alexander the Great, after a most memorable siege, 
captured the city of Tyre — which alone of all the Phoenician 
cities closed her gates against the conqueror — and reduced it to 
ruins (332 B.C.). The city never recovered from this blow. The 
site of the once brilliant maritime capital is now " bare as the top 
of a rock," a place where the few fishermen that still frequent the 
spot spread their nets to dry. 

Phoenician Commerce. — When we catch our first glimpse of 
the Mediterranean, about 1500 B.C., it is dotted with the sails of 
Phoenician navigators. It was natural that the people of the Phoe- 
nician coast should have been led to a seafaring life. The lofty 
mountains that back the little strip of shore seemed to shut them 
out from a career of conquest and to prohibit an extension of their 
land domains. At the same time, the Mediterranean in front in- 
vited them to maritime enterprise ; while the forests of Lebanon 
in the rear offered timber in abundance for their ships. The 
Phoenicians, indeed, were the first navigators who pushed out 
boldly from the shore and made real sea voyages. 

The longest voyages were made to procure tin, which was in 
great demand for the manufacture of articles in bronze. The 
nearest region where this metal was found was the Caucasus, on 
the eastern shore of the Euxine. The Phoenician sailors boldly 
threaded the .^gean Archipelago, passed through the Hellespont, 
braved the unknown terrors of the Black Sea, and from the land 
of Colchis brought back to the manufacturers of Asia the coveted 
article. 

Towards the close of the nth century B.C., the jealousy of the 
Pelasgic states of Greece and of the Archipelago, that were now 
growing into maritime power, closed the ^gean Sea against the 
Phoenician navigators. They then pushed out into the Western 
Mediterranean, and opened the tin-mines of the Iberian (Spanish) 
peninsula. When these began to fail, these bold sailors passed the 
Pillars of Hercules, faced the dangers of the Atlantic, and brought 
back from those distant seas the tin gathered in the mines of 
Britain. 



72 THE PHCENICIANS. 

Phcenician Colonies. — Along the different routes pursued by 
their ships, and upon the coasts visited by them, the Phoenicians 
estabhshed naval stations and trading-posts. Settlements were 
founded in Lesbos, Rhodes, and other islands of the yEgean Sea, 
as well as in Greece itself. The shores of Sicily, Sardinia, and 
Corsica were fringed with colonies ; while the coast of North Africa 
was dotted with such great cities as Utica, Hippo, and Carthage. 
Colonies were even planted beyond the Pillars of Hercules, upon 
the Atlantic seaboard. The Phoenician settlement of Gades, upon 
the western coast of Spain, is still preserved in the modern Cadiz. 

Arts disseminated by the Phoenicians. — We can scarcely over- 
rate the influence of Phoenician maritime enterprise upon the dis- 
tribution of the arts and the spread of culture among the early 
peoples of the Mediterranean area. " Egypt and Assyria," says 
Lenormant, " were the birthplace of material civilization ; the 
Canaanites [Phoenicians] were its missionaries." Most prominent 
of the arts which they introduced among all the nations with whom 
they traded was that of alphabetical writing. 

Before or during the rule of the Hyksos in Egypt, the Phoe- 
nician settlers in the Delta borrowed from the Egyptians twenty- 
two hieratic characters, which they passed on to their Asiatic 
kinsmen. These characters received new names, and became the 
Phoenician alphabet. Now, wherever the Phoenicians went, they 
carried this alphabet as " one of their exports." It was through 
them, probably, that the Greeks received it ; the Greeks passed it 
on to the Romans, and the Romans gave it to the German peoples. 
In this way did our alphabet come to us from Old Egypt. 

The introduction of letters among the different nations, vast as 
was the benefit which the gift conferred upon peoples just begin- 
ning to make advances in civilization, was only one of the many 
advantages which resulted to the early civilization of Europe from 
the commercial enterprise of the Phoenicians. It is probable that 
they first introduced among the semi-civilized tribes of that conti- 
nent the use of bronze, which marks an epoch in their growing 
culture. Articles of Phoenician workmanship are found in the 



GREAT ENTERPRISES. 73 

earliest tombs of the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans ; and 
in very many of the manufactures of these peoples may be traced 
the influence of Phoenician art. 

Great Enterprises aided by the Phoenicians. — While scatter- 
ing the germs of civilization and culture broadcast over the entire 
Mediterranean area, the enterprising Phoenicians were also lending 
aid to almost every great undertaking of antiquity. 

King Hiram of Tyre furnished Solomon with artisans and skilled 
workmen, and with great rafts of timber from Lebanon, for build- 
ing the splendid temple at Jerusalem. The Phoenicians also pro- 
vided timber from their fine forests for the construction of the great 
palaces and temples of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the 
Egyptians. They built for the Persian king Xerxes the Hellespon- 
tine bridges over which he marched his immense army into Greece 
(see p. 8i). They furnished contingents of ships to the kings of 
Nineveh and Babylon for naval operations both upon the Mediter- 
ranean and the Persian and Arabian gulfs. Their fleets served as 
transports and convoys to the expeditions of the Persian monarchs 
aiming at conquest in Asia Minor or in Europe. They formed, too, 
the naval branch of the armaments of the Pharaohs ; for the Egyp- 
tians hated the sea, and never had a native fleet. And it was 
Phoenician sailors that, under the orders of Pharaoh-Necho, cir- 
cumnavigated Africa (see p. 26) — an undertaking which, although 
attended perhaps with less advantage to the world, still is reckoned 
quite as remarkable, considering the remote age in which it was 
accomplished, as the circumnavigation of the globe by the Portu- 
guese navigator Magellan, more than two thousand years later. 



74 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 
I. Political History. 

Kinship of the Medes and Persians. — It was in very remote 
times, that some Aryan tribes, separating themselves from the other 
members of the Aryan family, sought new abodes on the plateau 
of Iran. The tribes that settled in the south became known as 
the Persians ; while those that took possession of the mountain 
regions of the northwest were called Medes. The Medes, through 
mingling with native non-Aryan tribes, became quite different from 
the Persians ; but notwithstanding this, the names of the two peo- 
ples were always very closely associated, as in the familiar legend, 
" The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 

The Medes at first the Leading Race. — Although the Persians 
were destined to become the dominant tribe of all the Iranian 
Aryans, still the Medes were at first the leading people. Cyaxares 
(625-585 B.C.) was their first prominent leader and king. We 
have already seen how, aided by the Babylonians, he overthrew 
the last king of Nineveh, and burned that capital (see p. 51). 

Cyaxares was followed by his son Astyages (585-558 b.c), dur- 
ing whose reign the Persians, whom Cyaxares had brought into at 
least partial subjection to the Median crown, revolted, overthrew 
the Median power, and thenceforth, held the place of leadership 
and authority. 

Reign of Cyrus the Great (558-529 b.c). — The leader of the 
revolt against the Medes was Cyrus, the tributary king of the Per- 
sians. Through his energy and soldierly genius, he soon built up 
an empire more extended than any over which the sceptre had yet 
been swayed by an Oriental monarch, or indeed, so far as we know, 



REIGN OF CYRUS. 75 

by any ruler before his time. It stretched from the Indus to the 
farthest Hmits of Asia Minor, and from the Caspian Sea to the 
Persian Gulf, thus embracing not only the territories of the Median 
kingdom, but also those of the allied kingdoms of Lydia and 
Babylonia. The subjugation of Babylonia to the Persian authority 
has already been narrated (see p. 60). We will now tell how Cyrus 
gained the kingdom of Lydia. 

Lydia was a country in the western part of Asia Minor. It was 
a land highly favored by nature. It embraced two rich river val- 
leys, — the plains of the Hermus and the Cayster, — which-, from 
the mountains inland, slope gently to the island-dotted ^'Egean. 
The Pactolus, and other tributaries of the streams we have named, 
rolled down "golden sands," while the mountains were rich in the 
precious metals. The coast region did not at first belong to Lydia ; 
it was held by the Greeks, who had fringed it with cities. The 
capital of the country was Sardis, whose citadel was set on a lofty 
and precipitous rock. 

The Lydians were a mixed people, formed, it is thought, by the 
mingling, in prehistoric times, of x\ryan tribes that crossed the 
^gean from Europe, with the original non- Aryan population of 
the country. 

The last and most renowned of the Lydian kings was Croesus. 
Under him the Lydian empire attained its greatest extension, em- 
bracing all the states of Asia Minor west of the Halys, save Lycia. 
The tribute Croesus collected from the Greek cities, which he 
subjugated, and the revenues he derived from his gold mines, 
rendered him the richest monarch of his times, so that his name 
has passed into the proverb "Rich as Croesus." 

Now Astyages, whom Cyrus had just overthrown, was the 
brother-in-law of this Croesus. When Croesus heard of his rela- 
tive's misfortune, he resolved to avenge his wrongs. The Delphian 
oracle (see p. 104), to which he sent to learn the issue of a war 
upon Cyrus, told him that he "would destroy a great kingdom." 
Interpreting this favorably, he sent again to inquire whether the 
empire he should establish would prove permanent, and received 



76 



THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 



this oracle : " Flee and tarry not when a mule ^ shall be king of 
the Medes." Deeming the accession of a mule to the Persian 
throne altogether impossible, he inferred the oracle to mean that 
his empire should last forever. 

Thus encouraged in his purpose, Croesus prepared to make war 
upon Persia. But he had miscalculated the strength and activity 
of his enemy. Cyrus marched across the Halys, defeated the 
Lydian army in the field, and after a short siege captured Sardis ; 
and Lydia became a province of the new Persian empire. 

There is a story which tells how Cyrus had caused a pyre to be 
erected on which to burn Croesus, but at the last moment was 

struck by hear- 
ing the unfor- 
tunate monarch 
repeatedly call 
the name of 
Solon. Seeking 
the meaning of 
this, he was 
told that Croe- 
g sus in his pros- 
perous years 
was visited by 
the Greek sage 
Solon, who, in 
answer to the 

inquiry of Croesus as to whether he did not deem him a happy 
man, replied, " Count no man happy until he is dead." Cyrus 
was so impressed with the story, so the legend tells, that he 
released the captive king, and treated him with the greatest 
kindness. 

This war between Croesus and Cyrus derives a special impor- 
tance from the fact that it brought the Persian empire into con- 

1 The allusion is to the (traditional) mixed Persian and Median descent of 
Cyrus. 




TOMB OF CYRUS THE GREAT. (Present Condition.) 



REIGN OF CAMBYSES. 77 

tact with the Greek cities of Asia, and thus led on directly to 
that memorable struggle between Greece and Persia known as the 
Grgeco-Persian War. 

Tradition says that Cyrus lost his life while leading an expedi- 
tion against some Scythian tribes in the north. He was buried 
at Pasargadse, the old Persian capital, and there his tomb stands 
to-day, surrounded by the ruins of the magnificent buildings with 
which he adorned that city. The following cuneiform inscription 
may still be read upon a pillar near the sepulchre : " I am Cyrus, 
the king, the Akhaemenian." 

Cyrus, notwithstanding his seeming love for war and conquest, 
possessed a kindly and generous disposition. Almost universal 
testimony has ascribed to him the purest and most beneficent 
character of any Eastern monarch. 

Reign of Cambyses (529-522 e.g.). — Cyrus the Great left two 
sons, Cambyses and Smerdis : the former, as the oldest, inherited 
the sceptre, and the title of king. He began a despotic and un- 
fortunate reign by causing his brother, whose influence he feared, 
to be secretly put to death. 

With far less ability than his father for their execution, Cambyses 
conceived even vaster projects of conquest and dominion. Asia 
had hitherto usually afforded a sufficient field for the ambition of 
Oriental despots. Cambyses determined to add the country of 
Africa to the vast inheritance received from his father. Upon 
some slight pretext, he invaded Egypt, captured Memphis, and 
ascended the Nile to Thebes. From here he sent an army of 
fifty thousand men to subdue the oasis of Ammoii, in the Libyan 
desert. Of the vast host not a man returned from the expedition. 
It is thought that the army was overwhelmed and buried by one 
of those fatal storms, called simooms, that so frequently sweep 
over those dreary wastes of sand. 

After a short, unsatisfactory stay in Egypt, Cambyses set out on 
his return to Persia. While on his way home, news was brought 
to him that his brother Smerdis had usurped the throne. A 



78 



THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 



Magian ^ impostor, Gomates by name, who resembled the mur- 
dered Smerdis, had personated him, and actually grasped the 
sceptre. Entirely disheartened by this starthng intelligence, Cam- 
byses in despair took his own life. 

Reign of Darius I. (521-486 b.c). — The Persian nobles soon 
rescued the sceptre from the grasp of the false Smerdis, and their 
leader, Darius, took the throne. The first act of Darius was to 
punish, by a general massacre, the Magian priests for the part they 
had taken in the usurpation of Smerdis. 




CAPTIVE INSURGENTS BROUGHT BEFORE DARIUS. Beneath his foot is the Magus 
Gomates, the false Smerdis. (From the great Behistun Rock,) 

With quiet and submission secured throughout the empire, 
Darius gave himself, for a time, to the arts of peace. He built a 
palace at Susa, and erected magnificent structures at Persepolis ; 



1 There were at this time two opposing religions in Persia : Zoroastrianism, 
which taught the simple worship of God under the name of Orniazd; and 
Magianism, a less pure faith, whose professors were fire-worshippers. The 
former was the religion of the Aryans; the latter, that of the non- Aryan por- 
tion of the population. The usurpation which placed Smerdis on the throne 
was planned by the Magi, Smerdis himself being a fire-priest. 



REIGN OF DARIUS I. 79 

reformed the administration of the government (see p. 82), mak- 
ing such wise and lasting changes that he has been called " the 
second founder of the Persian empire " ; established post-roads, 
instituted a coinage for the realm, and upon the great rock of 
Behistun, a lofty smooth-faced chff on the western frontier of 
Persia, caused to be inscribed a record of all his achievements.^ 

And now the Great King, Lord of Western Asia and of Egypt, 
conceived and entered upon the execution of vast designs of con- 
quest, the far-reaching effects of which were destined to live long 
after he had passed away. Inhospitable steppes on the north, and 
burning deserts on the south, whose shifting sands within a period 
yet fresh in memory had been the grave of a Persian army, seemed 
to be the barriers which Nature herself had set for the limits of 
empire in these directions. But on the eastern flank of the king- 
dom the rich and crowded plains of India invited the conqueror 
with promises of endless spoils and revenues ; while on the west 
a new continent, full of unknown mysteries, presented virgin fields 
never yet traversed by the army of an Eastern despot. Darius 
determined to extend the frontiers of his empire in both these 
directions. 

At one blow the region of northwestern India known as the 
Punjab, was brought under Persian authority ; and thus with a sin- 
gle effort were the eastern limits of the empire pushed out so as to 
include one of the richest countries of Asia — one which hence- 
forth returned to the Great King an annual revenue vastly larger 
than that of any other province hitherto acquired, not even except- 
ing the rich district of Babylonia, 

With an army numbering, it is said, more than 700,000 men, 
Darius now crossed the Bosphorus by means of a sort of pontoon 
bridge, constructed by Grecian architects, and passing the Danube 
by means of a similar bridge, penetrated far into what is now Rus- 

1 This important inscription is written in the cuneiform characters, and in 
three languages, Aryan, Turanian, and Semitic. It is the Rosetta Stone of 
the cuneiform writings, the key to their treasures having been obtained from 
its parallel columns. 



80 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

sia, which was then occupied by Scythian hordes. The results of 
the expedition were the addition of Thrace to the Persian empire, 
and the making of Macedonia a tributary kingdom. Thus the 
Persian kings secured their first foothold upon the European 
continent. 

The most significant campaign in Europe was yet to follow. In 
500 B.C., the Ionian cities in Asia Minor subject to the Persian 
authority revolted. The Greeks of Europe lent aid to their sister 
states. Sardis was sacked and burned by the insurgents. With 
the revolt crushed and punished with great severity, Darius deter- 
mined to chastise the European Greeks, and particularly the Athe- 
nians, for their insolence in giving aid to his rebellious subjects. 
Herodotus tells us that he appointed a person whose sole duty it 
was daily to stir up the purpose of the king with the words, 
"Master, remember the Athenians." 

A large land and naval armament was fitted out and placed 
under the command of Mardonius, a son-in-law of Darius. The 
land forces suffered severe losses at the hands of the barbarians of 
Thrace, and the fleet was wrecked by a violent storm off Mount 
Athos, three hundred ships being lost (492 B.C.). 

Two years after this disaster, another expedition, consisting of 
120,000 men, was borne by ships across the yEgean to the plains 
of Marathon. The details of the significant encounter that there 
took place between the Persians and the Athenians will be given 
when we come to narrate the history of Greece. We need now 
simply note the result, — the complete overthrow of the Persian 
forces by the Greeks under Miltiades (490 B.C.). 

Darius, angered beyond measure by the failure of the expedi- 
tion, stirred up all the provinces of his vast empire, and called for 
new levies from far and near, resolved upon leading in person such 
an army into Greece that the insolent Athenians should be crushed 
at a single blow, and the tarnished glory of the Persian arms 
restored. In the midst of these preparations, with the Egyptians 
in revolt, the king suddenly died, in the year 486 B.C. 

Reign of Xerxes I. (486-465 b.c). — The successor of Darius, 



THE END OE THE FERSEiN EMPIRE. 81 

his son Xerxes, though more indined to indulge in the ease and 
luxury of the palace than to subject himself to the hardship and 
discipline of the camp, was urged by those about him to an active 
prosecution of the plans of his father. 

After crushing the Egyptian revolt and another insurrection in 
Babylonia, the Great King was free to devote his attention to the 
distant Greeks. Mustering the contingents of the different prov- 
inces of his empire, Xerxes led his vast army over the bridges 
he had caused to be thrown across the Hellespont, crushed the 
Spartan guards at the Pass of Thermopylae, pushed on into Attica, 
and laid Athens in ruins. But there fortune forsook him. At the 
naval battle of Salamis, his fleet was cut to pieces by the Grecian 
ships ; and the king, making a precipitate retreat into Asia, has- 
tened to his capital, Susa. Here, in the pleasures of the harem, 
he sought solace for his wounded pride and broken hopes. He at 
last fell a victim to palace intrigue, being slain in his own chamber 
(465 B.C.). 

End of the Persian Empire. — The power and supremacy of 
the Persian monarchy passed away with the reign of Xerxes. The 
last one hundred and forty years of the existence of the empire was 
a time of weakness and anarchy. This period was spanned by the 
reigns of eight kings. It was in the reign of Artaxerxes II., called 
Mnemon for his remarkable memory, that took place the well- 
known expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks under Cyrus, the 
brother of Artaxerxes, an account of which will be given in con- 
nection with Grecian history (see chap, xv.) . 

The march of the Ten Thousand through the very heart of the 
dominions of the Great King demonstrated the amazing internal 
weakness of the empire. Marathon and Salamis had shown the 
immense superiority of the free soldiery of Greece over the splen- 
did but servile armies of Persia, that were often driven to battle 
with the lash. These disclosures invited the Macedonians to the 
invasion and conquest of the empire. 

In the year 334 B.C., Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, 
led a small army of thirty-five thousand Greeks and Macedonians 



82 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

across the Hellespont. Three great battles — that of the Granicus, 
that of Issus, and that of Arbela — decided the fate of the Persian 
Empire. Darius III., the last of the Persian kings, fled from the 
field of Arbela, on the plains of Assyria, only to be treacherously 
assassinated by one of his own generals. 

The succeeding movements of Alexander, and the estabhshment 
by him of the short-lived Macedonian monarchy upon the ruins 
of the Persian state, are matters that properly belong to Grecian 
history, and will be related in a following chapter. 

2. Government, Religion, and Arts. 

The Government. — Before the reign of Darius I., the govern- 
ment of the Persian Empire was like that of all the great monarchies 
that had preceded it ; that is, it consisted of a great number of 
subject states, which were allowed to retain their own kings and 
manage their own affairs, only paying tribute and homage, and 
furnishing contingents in time of war, to the Great King. 

We have seen how weak was this rude and primitive type of 
government. Darius I., who possessed rare ability as an organizer, 
remodelled the system of his predecessors, and actually realized 
for the Persian monarchy what Tiglath-Pileser II. had long before 
attempted, but only with partial and temporary success, to accom- 
plish for the Assyrian. 

The system of government which Darius I. thus first made a 
real fact in the world, is known as the satrapal, a form represented 
to-day by the government of the Turkish Sultan. The entire 
kingdom was divided into twenty or more provinces, over each of 
which was placed a governor, called a satrap, appointed by the 
king. These officials held their position at the pleasure of the 
sovereign, and were thus rendered his subservient creatures. Each 
province contributed to the income of the king a stated revenue. 

There were provisions in the system by which the king might 
be apprised of the disloyalty of his satraps. Thus the whole 
dominion was firmly cemented together, and the facility with 



Z OR OA S TRIANISM. 



83 



which almost sovereign states — which was the real character of 
the different parts of the empire under the old system — could 
plan and execute revolt, was removed. 

Literature and E-elig^ion : Zoroastrianism. — The Hterature of 
the ancient Persians was mostly religious. Their sacred book is 
called the Zen da- 
vesta. The oldest 
part is named the 
Vendidad. This con- 
sists of laws, incan- 
tations, and mythical 
tales. 

The religious sys- 
tem of the Persians, 
as taught in the Zend- 
avesta, is known as 
Zoroastrianism, from 
Zoroaster, its founder. 
This great reformer 
and teacher is now 
generally supposed to 
have lived and taught 
about looo B.C. 

Zoroastrianism was 
a system of belief 
known as dualism. 
Opposed to the 
"good spirit," Or- 
mazd (Ahura Maz- 
da), there was a 
"dark spirit," Ahriman ( Angro-Mainyus), who was constantly 
striving to destroy the good creations of Ormazd by creating all 
evil things — storm, drought, pestilence, noxious animals, weeds 
and thorns in the world without, and evil in the heart of man 
within. From all eternity these two powers had been contending 




THE KING IN COMBAT WITH A MONSTER. 
(From Persepolis.) 



84 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

for the mastery ; in the present neither had the decided advan- 
tage ; but in the near future Ormazd would triumph over Ahriman, 
and evii be forever destroyed. 

The duty of man was to aid Ormazd by working with him 
against the evil-loving Ahriman. He must labor to eradicate every 
evil and vice in his own bosom ; to reclaim the earth from 
barrenness ; and to kill all bad animals — frogs, toads, snakes, 
lizards — which Ahriman had created. Herodotus saw with 
amazement the Magian priests armed with weapons and en- 
gaged in slaying these animals as a "pious pastime." Agri- 
culture was a sacred caUing, for the husbandman was reclaiming 
the ground from the curse of the Dark Spirit. Thus men might 
become co-workers with Ormazd in the mighty work of over- 
throwing and destroying the kingdom of the wicked Ahriman. 

The evil man was he who allowed vice and degrading passions 
to find a place in his own soul, and neglected to exterminate nox- 
ious animals and weeds, and to help redeem the earth from the 
barrenness and sterility created by the enemy of Ormazd. ^ 

After death the souls of the good and the bad alike must pass 
over a narrow bridge : the good soul crosses in safety, and is 
admitted to the presence of Ahura Mazda ; while the evil soul is 
sure to fall from the path, sharp as the edge of a scimitar, into a 
pit of woe, the dwelling-place of Ahriman. 

Architecture. — The simple religious faith of the Persians dis- 
couraged, though it did not prohibit, the erection of temj^les : 
their sacred architecture scarcely included more than an altar and 

1 The belief of the Zoroastrians in the sacredness of the elements, — earth, 
water, fire, and air, — - created a difficulty in regard to the disposal of dead 
bodies. They could neither be burned, buried, thrown into the water, nor left 
to decay in a sepulchral chamber or in the open air, without polluting one or 
another of the sacred elements. So they were given to the birds and wild 
beastSy being exposed on lofty towers or in desert places. Those whose feel- 
ings would not allow them thus to dispose of their dead, were permitted to 
bury them, provided they first encased the body in wax, to preserve the ground 
from contamination. The modern Parsees, or Fire-Worshippers, give their 
dead to the birds. 



ARCHITECTURE. 85 

pedestal. The palace of the monarch was the structure that ab- 
sorbed the best efforts of the Persian artist. 

In imitation of the inhabitants of the valley of the Euphrates, 
the Persian kings raised their palaces upon lofty terraces, or plat- 
forms. But upon the table-lands they used stone instead of adobe 
or brick, and at PersepoHs, raised, for the substruction of their pal- 
aces, an immense platform of massive masonry, which is one of 
the most wonderful monuments of the world's ancient builders. 
This terrace, which is uninjured by the 2300 years that have passed 
since its erection, is about 1500 feet long, 1000 feet wide, and 




THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS. 



40 feet high. The summit is reached by broad stairways of stone, 
pronounced by competent judges the finest work of the kind that 
the ancient or even the modern world can boast. 

Surmounting this platform are the ruins of the palaces of several 
of the Persian monarchs, from Cyrus the Great to Artaxerxes 
Ochus. These ruins consist chiefly of walls, columns, and great 
monolithic door- and window-frames. Colossal winged bulls, 
copied from the Assyrians, stand as wardens at the gateway of 
the ruined palaces. 



86 



THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 



Numerous sculptures in bas-relief decorate the faces of the walls, 
and these throw much light upon the manners and customs of the 
ancient Persian kings. The successive palaces increase, not only 
in size, but in sumptuousness of adornment, thus registering those 
changes which we have been tracing in the national history. The 
residence of Cyrus was small and modest, while that of Artaxerxes 
Ochus equalled in size the great palace of the Assyrian Sargon. 



TABLE OF KINGS OF MEDIA AND PERSIA. 



Kings of Media 



Kings of Persia 



Phraortes ? -625 

Cyaxares 625-585 

Astyages S^S'SSS 

Cyrus 558-529 

Cambyses . 529-522 

Pseudo-Smerdis 522-521 

Darius 1 521-486 

Xerxes 1 486-465 

Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus) 465-425 

Xerxes II 425 

Sogdianus 425-424 

Darius II. (Nothus) 424-405 

Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon) 405-359 

Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) 359-338 

Arses Z7i^-ZZ^ 

Darius III. (Codomannus) 'iZ^~l>Z'^ 



SECTION II. — GRECIAN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 

Divisions of Greece. — Long arms of the sea divide the Grecian 
peninsula into three parts, called Northern, Central, and Southern 
Greece. 

Northern Greece included the ancient districts of Thessaly and 
Epirus. Thessaly consists mainly of a large and beautiful valley, 
walled in on all sides by rugged mountains. It was celebrated 
far and wide for the variety and beauty of its scenery. On its 
northern edge, lay a beautiful glen, called the Vale of Tempe, the 
only pass by which the plain of Thessaly could be entered from 
the north. The district of Epirus stretched along the Ionian Sea 
on the west. In the gloomy recesses of its forests of oak was 
situated the renowned Dodonean oracle of Zeus. 

Central Greece was divided into eleven districts, among which 
were Phocis, B(jeotia, and Attica. In Phocis was the city of 
Delphi, famous for its oracle and temple ; in Boeotia, the city of 
Thebes ; and in Attica, the brilliant Athens. 

Southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, was also divided into 
eleven provinces, of which the more important were Arcadia, 
embracing the central part of the peninsula ; Achaia, the northern 
part ; Argolis, the eastern ; and Messenia and Laconia, the south- 
ern. The last district was ruled by the city of Sparta, the great 
rival of Athens. 

Mountains. — The Cambunian Mountains form a lofty wall 
along a considerable reach of the northern frontier of Greece, 



88 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 

shutting out at once the cold winds and hostile races from the 
north. Branching off at right angles to these mountains is the 
Pindus range^ which runs south into Central Greece. 

In Northern Thessaly is Mount Olympus, the most celebrated 
mountain of the peninsula. The ancient Greeks thought it the 
highest mountain in the world (it is 9700 feet in height), and 
believed that its cloudy summit was the abode of the celestials. 

South of Olympus, close by the sea, are Ossa and Pelion, cele- 
brated in fable as the mountains which the giants, in their war 
against the gods, piled one upon another, in order to scale 
Olympus. 

Parnassus and HeHcon, in Central Greece, — beautiful moun- 
tains clad with trees and vines and filled with fountains, — were 
beHeved to be the favorite haunts of the Muses. Near Athens are 
Hymettus, praised for its honey, and Pentehcus, renowned for its 
marbles. 

The Peloponnesus is rugged with mountains that radiate in all 
directions from the central country of Arcadia, — " the Switzerland 
of Greece." 

Islands about Greece. — Very much of the history of Greece 
is intertwined with the islands that lie about the mainland. On 
the east, in the JEgean Sea, are the Cyclades, so called because 
they form an irregular circle about the sacred isle of Delos, where 
was a very celebrated shrine of Apollo. Between the Cyclades and 
Asia Minor lie the Sporades, which islands, as the name implies, 
are sowu irregularly over that portion of the yEgean. 

Just off the coast of Attica is a large island called by the 
ancients Euboea, but known to us as Negropont. Close to the 
Asian shores are the large islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and 
Rhodes. 

To the west of Greece lie the Ionian Islands, the largest of which 
was called Corcyra, now Corfu. The rugged island of Ithaca was 
the birthplace of Odysseus, or Ulysses, the hero of the Odyssey. 
Cythera, just south of the Peloponnesus, was sacred to Aphrodite 
(Venus), as it was here fable said she rose from the sea-foam. 



INFLUENCE OF COUNTRY. 89 

Beyond Cythera, in the Mediterranean, midway between Greece 
and Egypt, is the large island of Crete, noted in legend for its 
labyrinth and its legislator Minos. 

Influence of Country. — The physical features of a country 
have much to do with the moulding of the character and the shap- 
ing of the history of its people. Mountains, isolating neighboring 
communities and shutting out conquering races, foster the spirit of 
local patriotism and preserve freedom ; the sea, inviting abroad, 
and rendering intercourse with distant countries easy, awakens the 
spirit of adventure and develops commercial enterprise. 

Now, Greece is at once a mountainous and a maritime country. 
Abrupt mountain-walls fence it off into a great number of isolated 
districts, each of which in ancient times became the seat of a 
distinct community, or state. Hence the fragmentary character 
of its political history. The Hellenic states never coalesced to 
form a single nation. 

The peninsula is, moreover, by deep arms and bays of the sea, 
converted into what is in effect an archipelago. (No spot in 
Greece is forty miles from the sea.) Hence its people were early 
tempted to a sea-faring life. The shores of the Mediterranean 
and the Euxine were dotted with Hellenic colonies. Intercourse 
with the old civilizations of Egypt and Phoenicia stirred the natur- 
ally quick and versatile Greek intellect to early and vigorous 
thought. The islands strewn with seeming carelessness through 
the ^gean Sea were " stepping-stones," which invited the earliest 
settlers of Greece to the delightful coast countries of Asia Minor, 
and thus blended the life and history of the opposite shores. 

Again, the beauty of Grecian scenery inspired many of the most 
striking passages of her poets ; and it is thought that the exhila- 
rating atmosphere and brilliant skies of Attica were not unrelated 
to the lofty achievements of the Athenian intellect. 

The Pelasgians. — The historic inhabitants of the land we have 
described were called by the Romans Greeks, but they called 
themselves Hellenes, from their fabled ancestor Hellen. 

But the Hellenes, according to their own account, were not the 



90 



THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 



original inhabitants of the country. They were preceded by a 
people whom they called Pelasgians. Who these folk were is a 
matter of debate. Some think that the Pelasgians and Hellenes 
were kindred tribes, but that the Hellenes, possessing superior 
qualities, gradually acquired ascendency over the Pelasgians and 
finally absorbed them. 




PREHISTORIC WALLS AT MYCEN/E. (The Lions' Gate.) 

The Pelasgians were somewhat advanced beyond the savage 
state. They cultivated the ground, and protected their cities 
with walls. Remnants of their rude but massive masonry still 
encumber in places the soil of Greece. 

The Hellenes. — The Hellenes were divided into four tribes ; 
namely, the lonians, the Dorians, the Achaeans, and the Cohans. 



THE HELLENES. 91 

The lonians were a many-sided, imaginative people. They 
developed every part of their nature, and attained unsurpassed 
excellence in art, literature, and philosophy. The most noted 
Ionian city was Athens, whose story is a large part of the history 
of Hellas. 

The Dorians were a practical, unimaginative race. Their speech 
and their art were both alike without ornament. They developed 
the body rather than the mind. Their education was almost 
wholly gymnastic and military. They were unexcelled as warriors. 
The most important city founded by them was Sparta, the rival of 
Athens. 

These two great Hellenic families divided Hellas ^ into two 
rival parties, which through their mutual jealousies and contentions 
finally brought all the bright hopes and promises of the Hellenic 
race to utter ruin. 

The Achaeans are represented by the Greek legends as being 
the predominant race in the Peloponnesus during the Heroic Age. 
The yEolians formed a rather ill-defined division. In historic 
times the name is often made to include all Hellenes not enu- 
merated as lonians or Dorians. 

These several tribes, united by bonds of language and rehgion, 
always regarded themselves as members of a single family. They 
were proud of their ancestry, and as exclusive almost as the 
Hebrews. All non-Hellenic people they called Barbarians.'^ 

When the mists of antiquity are first lifted from Greece, about 
the beginning of the eighth century B.C., we discover the several 
families of the Hellenic race in possession of Greece proper, of the 
islands of the yEgean, and of the western coasts of Asia Minor, 
Respecting their prehistoric migrations and settlements, we have 
little or no certain knowledge. 

1 Under the name Hellas the ancient Greeks included not only Greece 
proper and the islands of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic cities in 
Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, and elsewhere. "Wherever were Hellenes, 
there was Hellas." 

-At first, this term meant scarcely more than "unintelligible folk"; but 
later, it came to express aversion and contempt. 



92 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 

Oriental Immigrants. — According to their own traditions the 
early growth of civihzation among the European Hellenes was 
promoted by the settlement among them of Oriental immigrants, 
who brought with them the arts and culture of the different coun- 
tries of the East. 

From Egypt, legend affirms, came Cecrops, bringing with him 
the arts, learning, and priestly wisdom of the Nile valley. He is 
represented as the builder of the citadel (the Cecropia) of what 
was afterwards the illustrious city of Athens. From Phoenicia 
Cadmus brought the letters of the alphabet, and founded the city 
of Thebes. The Phrygian Pelops, the progenitor of the renowned 
heroes Agamemnon and Menelaus, settled in the southern penin- 
sula, which was called after him the Peloponnesus (the Island of 
Pelops) . 

The nucleus of fact in all these legends is probably this, — that 
the European Greeks received the primary elements of their cul- 
ture from the East through their Asiatic kinsmen. 

Local Patriotism of the Greeks : the City the Political Unit. 
— The narrow political sympathies of the ancient Greeks pre- 
vented their ever uniting to form a single nation. The city was 
with them the political unit. It was regarded as a distinct, self- 
governing state, just like a modern nation. A citizen of one city 
was an alien in any other : he could not marry a woman of a city 
not his own, nor hold property in houses or lands within its terri- 
tory. 

A Greek city-state usually embraced, besides the walled town, 
a more or less extensive border of gardens and farms, a strip of 
sea-coast, or perhaps a considerable mountain-hemmed valley or 
plain. The model city (or state, as we should say) must not be 
over large. In this, as in everything else, the ancient Greeks 
applied the Delphian rule — " Measure in all things." " A small 
city," says one of their poets, " set upon a rock and well governed, 
is better than all foolish Nineveh." Aristotle thought that the 
ideal city should not have more than ten thousand citizens. 



CHARACTER OF THE LEGENDARY AGE. 93 



CHAPTER X. 

THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. 

(From the earliest times to 776 B.C.) 

Character of the Legendary Age. — The real history of the 
Greeks does not begin before the eighth century B.C. All that 
lies back of that date is an inseparable mixture of myth, legend, 
and fact. Yet this shadowy period forms the background of Gre- 
cian history, and we cannot understand the ideas and acts of the 
Greeks of historic times without at least some knowledge of what 
they believed their ancestors did and experienced in those pre- 
historic ages. 

So, as a sort of prelude to the story we have to tell, we shall 
repeat some of the legends of the Greeks respecting their national 
heroes and their great' labors and undertakings. But it must be 
carefully borne in mind that these legends are not history, though 
some of them may be confused remembrances of actual events. 

The Heroes: Heracles, Theseus, and Minos. — The Greeks 
believed that their ancestors were a race of heroes of divine or 
semi-divine lineage. Every tribe, district, city, and village even, 
preserved traditions of its heroes, whose wonderful exploits were 
commemorated in song and story. Many of these personages 
acquired national renown, and became the revered heroes of the 
whole Greek race. 

Heracles was the greatest of the national heroes of the Greeks. 
He is represented as performing, besides various other exploits, 
twelve superhuman labors, and as being at last translated from a 
blazing pyre to a place among the immortal gods. The myth of 
Heracles, who was at first a solar divinity, is made up mainly of 
the very same fables that were told of the Chaldaean solar hero 



94 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. 

Izdubar (see p. 46). Through the Phoenicians, these stories found 
their way to the Greeks, who ascribed to their own Heracles the 
deeds of the Chaldsean sun-god. 

Theseus, a descendant of Cecrops, was the favorite hero of the 
Athenians, being one of their legendary kings. Among his great 
exploits was the slaying of the Minotaur, — a monster which 
Minos, king of Crete, kept in a labyrinth, and fed upon youths 
and maidens sent from Athens as a forced tribute. 

Minos, king of Crete, was one of the greatest tribal heroes of 
the Dorians. Legend makes him a legislator of divine wisdom, 
the suppressor of piracy in the Grecian seas, and the founder 
of the first great maritime state of Hellas. 

The Argonautic Expedition. — Besides the labors and exploits 
of single heroes, the legends of the Greeks tell of several memora- 
ble enterprises conducted by bands of heroes. Among these were 
the Argonautic Expedition and the Siege of Troy. 

The tale of the Argonautic Expedition is told with many varia- 
tions in the legends of the Greeks. Jason, a prince of Thessaly, 
with fifty companion heroes, among whom were Heracles, Theseus, 
and Orpheus, the latter a musician of superhuman skill, the music 
of whose lyre moved brutes and stones, set sail in " a fifty-oared 
galley," called the Ai'go (hence the name Argonauts , given to the 
heroes), in search of a "golden fleece" which was fabled to be 
nailed to a tree and watched by a dragon, in the Grove of Ares, 
on the eastern shores of the Euxine, an inhospitable region of un- 
known terrors. The expedition is successful, and, after many won- 
derful adventures, the heroes return in triumph with the sacred relic. 

Different meanings have been given to this tale. In its primi- 
tive form it was doubtless a pure myth of the rain-clouds ; but in 
its later forms we may believe it to symbolize the maritime explo- 
rations in the eastern seas, of some of the tribes of Pelasgian 
Greece. 

The Trojan War (legendary date 11 94-1 184 b.c). — The 
Trojan War was an event about which gathered a great circle of 
tales and poems, all full of an undying interest and fascination. 



THE TROJAN WAR. 95 

Ilios, or Troy, was the capital of a strong empire, represented 
as Grecian in race and language, which had grown up in Asia 
Minor, along the shores of the Hellespont. The traditions tell 
how Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, visited the Spartan king 
Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his hospitality by secretly 
bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for her rare beauty. 

All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. A 
host of one hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered. 
Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and "king of men," was chosen 
leader of the expedition. Under him were the "lion-hearted 
Achilles," of Thessaly, the "crafty Ulysses" (Odysseus), king of 
Ithaca, Ajax, "the swift son of Oileus," the Telamonian Ajax, the 
aged Nestor, and many more — the most vahant heroes of all 
Hellas. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from 
xAulis in Greece, across the ^-^gean to the Trojan shores. 

For ten years the Greeks and their allies hold in close siege the 
city of Priam. On the plains beneath the walls of the capital, the 
warriors of the two armies fight in general battle, or contend in 
single encounter. At first, Achilles is foremost in every fight ; but 
a fair-faced maiden, who fell to him as a prize, having been taken 
from him by his chief, Agamemnon, he is filled with wrath, and 
sulks in his tent. Though the Greeks are often sorely pressed, 
still the angered hero refuses them his aid. At last, however, his 
friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, eldest son of Priam, and then 
Achilles goes forth to avenge his death. In a fierce combat he 
slays Hector, fastens his body to his chariot wheels, and drags it 
thrice around the walls of Troy. 

The city is at last taken through a device of the " crafty Ulys- 
ses." Upon the plain in sight of the walls is built a wooden statue 
of a horse, in the body of which are hidden several Grecian war- 
riors. Then the Greeks retire to their ships, as though about to 
abandon the siege. The Trojans issue from the gates and gather 
in wondering crowds about the image. They believe it to be an 
offering sacred to Athena, and so dare not destroy it ; but, on the 
other hand, misled by certain omens and by a lying Greek named 



96 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. 

Sinon, they level a place in the walls of their city, and drag the 
statue within. At night the concealed warriors issue from the 
horse, open the gates of the city to the Grecians, and Troy is 
sacked, and burned to the ground. The aged Priam is slain, after 
having seen his sons and many of his warriors perish before his 
face, ^neas, with his aged father, Anchises, and a few devoted 
followers, escapes, and, after long wanderings, becomes the fabled 
founder of the Roman race in Italy. 

It is a matter of difficulty to point out the nucleus of fact in 
this the most elaborate and interesting of the Grecian legends. 
Some beheve it to be the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict 
between the Greeks and the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the 
attempt of the former to secure a foothold upon the coast. That 
there really existed in prehistoric times such a city as Troy, has 
been placed beyond doubt by the excavations and discoveries 
of Dr. Schliemann. 

Return of the Grecian Chieftains. — After the fall of Troy, the 
Grecian chieftains and princes returned home. The poets repre- 
sent the gods as withdrawing their protection from the hitherto 
favored heroes, because they had not respected the altars of the 
Trojans. So, many of them were driven in endless wanderings over 
sea and land. Homer's Odyssey portrays the sufferings of the 
"much-enduring" Odysseus (Ulysses), impelled by divine wrath 
to long journeyings through strange seas. 

In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been 
taken of the absence of the princes, and their thrones had been 
usurped. Thus at Argos, yEgisthus had won the unholy love of 
Clytemnestra, wife and queen of Agamemnon, who on his return 
was murdered by the guilty couple. In pleasing contrast with this 
we have exhibited to us the constancy of Penelope, although sought 
by many suitors during the absence of her husband Ulysses. 

The Dorian Invasion, or the Return of the Heraclidae (leg- 
endary date 1 104 B.C.). — We set the tradition of the return of 
the Heraclidae apart from the legends of the enterprises just 
detailed, for the reason that it undoubtedly contains quite a large 



MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR. 97 

historical element. The legend tells how Heracles, an Achaean, in 
the times before the Trojan War, ruled over the Peloponnesian 
Achseans. Just before that event his children were driven from the 
land. Eighty years after the war, the hundred years of exile ap- 
pointed by the Fates having expired, the descendants of the hero, 
at the head of the Dorians from Northern Greece, returned, and 
with their aid effected the conquest of the greater part of the 
Peloponnesus, and established themselves as conquerors and mas- 
ters in the land that had formerly been ruled by their semi- divine 
ancestor. 

This legend seems to be a dim remembrance of a prehistoric 
invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of 
Greece, and the expulsion or subjugation of the native inhabitants 
of the peninsula. 

Some of the dispossessed Achseans, crowding towards the north 
of the Peloponnesus, drove out the lonians who occupied the south- 
ern shore of the Corinthian Gulf, and settling there, gave the name 
Achaia to all that region. 

Arcadia, in the centre of the Peloponnesus, was another district 
which did not fall into the hands of the Dorians. The people 
here, even down to the latest times, retained their primitive cus- 
toms and country mode of Hfe ; hence Arcadian came to mean 
rustic and artless. 

Migrations to Asia Minor. — The Greek legends represent that 
the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three distinct 
migrations from the mother-land to the shores of Asia Minor and 
the adjoining islands. 

The northwestern shore of Asia Minor was settled, mainly, by 
yEolian emigrants from Boeotia. The neighboring island of Lesbos 
became the home and centre of ^olian culture in poetry and 
music. 

The coast to the south of the Cohans was occupied by Ionian 
emigrants, who, uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled 
upon that shore, built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, 
etc.), w^hich finally united to form the celebrated Ionian confederacy. 



98 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. 

South of the lonians, all along the southwestern shore of Asia 
Minor, the Dorians established their colonies. They also settled 
the important islands of Cos and Rhodes, and conquered and col- 
onized Crete. 

The traditions of these various settlements represent them as 
having been effected in a very short period ; but it is probable that 
the movement embraced several centuries, — possibly a longer time 
than has been occupied by the English race in colonizing the dif- 
ferent lands of the Western World. 

With these migrations to the Asiatic shores, the Legendary Age 
of Greece comes to an :rd. From tliis time forward we tread 
upon fairly firm historic ground. 

Society in the Heroic Age. — In Homeric times the Greeks 
were ruled by hereditary kings, who were believed to be of divine 
or superhuman lineage. The king was at once the lawgiver, the 
judge, and the mihtary leader of his people. He was expected 
to prove his divine right to rule, by his courage, strength, wisdom, 
and eloquence. When he ceased to display these qualities, " the 
sceptre departed from him." 

The king was surrounded by an advisory council of chiefs or 
nobles. The king hstened to what the nobles had to say upon any 
measure he might propose, and then acted according to his own 
will or judgment, restrained only by the time-honored customs of 
the community. 

Next to the council of chiefs, there was a general assembly, 
called the Agora, made up of all the common freemen. The 
members of this body could not take part in any debate, nor 
could they vote upon any question. This body, so devoid seem- 
ingly of all authority in the Homeric age, was destined to become 
the all-powerful popular assembly in the democratic cities of his- 
toric Greece. 

Of the condition of the common freemen we know but little ; 
the legendary tales were concerned chiefly with the kings and 
nobles. Slavery existed, but the slaves did not constitute as 
numerous a class as they became in historic times. 



SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE. 



99 



In the family, the wife held a much more honored position than 
she occupied in later times. The charming story of the constant 
Penelope, which we find in the Odyssey\ assures us that the Ho- 
meric age cherished a chivalric feeling for woman. 

In all ranks of society, life was marked by a sort of patriarchal 
simplicity. Manual labor was not yet thought to be degrading. 
Ulysses constructs his own house and raft, and boasts of his skill 
in swinging the scythe and guiding the plow. Spinning and weav- 
ing were the chief occupations of the women of all classes. 

One pleasing and prominent virtue of the age was hospitahty. 
There were no public inns in those times, hence a sort of gentle 
necessity compelled the entertainment of wayfarers. The hospi- 
tality accorded was the same free and impulsive welcome that the 
Arab sheik of to-day extends to the traveller whom chance brings 
to his tent. But while hospitable, the nobles of the heroic age 
were often cruel, violent, and treacherous. Homer represents his 
heroes as committing without a blush all sorts of fraud and villa- 
nies. Piracy was considered an honorable occupation. 




FORTY-OARED GREEK BOAT. (After a Vase Painting.) 



Art and architecture were in a rudimentary state. Yet some 
advance had been made. The cities were walled, and the pal- 
aces of the kings possessed a certain barbaric splendor. Coined 
money was unknown ; wealth was reckoned chiefly in flocks and 
herds, and in uncoined metals. The art of writing was probably 
unknown, at least there is no certain mention of it ; and sculpture 
could not have been in an advanced state, as the Homeric poems 
make no mention of statues. The state of literature is shown by 



100 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. 

the poems of the Iliad and Odyssey : before the close of the age, 
epic poetry had reached a perfection beyond which it has never 
been carried. 

Commerce was yet in its infancy. Although the Greeks were to 
become a great maritime people, still in the Homeric age they had 
evidently explored the sea but little. The Phoenicians then ruled 
the waves. The Greeks in those early times knew scarcely any- 
thing of the world beyond Greece proper and the neighboring 
islands and shores. Scarcely an echo of the din of life from the 
then ancient and mighty cities of Egypt and Chaldaea seems to 
have reached their ears. 



INTR OD UC TOR V. 101 



CHAPTER XI. 

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 

Introductory. — Without at least some little knowledge of the 
religious ideas and institutions of the ancient Greeks, we should 
find very many passages of their history wholly unintelligible. 
Hence a few remarks upon these matters will be in place here. 

Cosmography of the Greeks. — The Greeks supposed the earth 
to be, as it appears, a plane, circular in form like a shield. Around 
it flowed the "mighty strength of the ocean river," a stream broad 
and deep, beyond which on all sides lay realms of Cimmerian 
darkness and terror. The heavens were a solid vault, or dome^ 
whose edge shut down close upon the earth. Beneath the earth, 
reached by subterranean passages, was Hades, a vast region, the 
realm of departed souls. Still beneath this was the prison Tarta- 
rus, a pit deep and dark, made fast by strong gates of brass and 
iron. Sometimes the poets represent the gloomy regions beyond 
the ocean stream as the cheerless abode of the dead. 

The sun was an archer-god, borne in a fiery chariot up and 
down the steep pathway of the skies. Naturally it was imagined 
that the regions in the extreme east and west, which were bathed 
in the near splendors of the sunrise and sunset, were lands of de- 
light and plenty. The eastern was the favored country of the 
Ethiopians,^ a land which even Zeus himself so loved to visit that 
often he was found absent from Olympus when sought by suppliants. 
The western region, adjoining the ocean stream, formed the Ely- 
sian Fields, the abodes of the souls of heroes and of poets." 

1 There was also a western division of these people. 

2 These conceptions, it will be understood, belong to the early period of 
Greek mythology. As the geographical knowledge of the Greeks became more 



102 



RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 



The Olympian Council. — There were twelve members of the 
celestial council, six gods and as many goddesses. The male 
deities were Zeus, the father of gods and men ; Poseidon, ruler of 
the sea ; Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of light, of music, and of 
prophecy ; Ares, the god of war ; Hephaestus, the deformed god 
of fire, and the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus ; Hermes, the 
wing-footed herald of the celestials, the god of invention and com- 
merce, himself a thief and the patron of thieves. 




THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER. 

The female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous queen 
of Zeus; Athena, or Pallas, — who sprang full-grown from the 
forehead of Zeus, — the goddess of wisdom, and the patroness of 
the domestic arts ; Artemis, the goddess of the chase ; Aphrodite, 
the goddess of love and beauty, born of the sea-foam ; Hestia, the 



extended, they modified considerably the topography not only of the upper- 
world, but also of the nether-woild. 



LESSEK DEITIES AND MONSTERS. 103 

goddess of the hearth ; Demeter, the earth-mother, the goddess 
of grains and harvests.^ 

These great deities were simply magnified human beings, pos- 
sessing all their virtues, and often their weaknesses. They give 
way to fits of anger and jealousy. " Zeus deceives, and Hera is 
constantly practising her wiles." All the celestial council, at the 
sight of Hephaestus limping across the palace floor, burst into 
"inextinguishable laughter"; and Aphrodite, weeping, moves all 
to tears. They surpass mortals rather in power, than in size of 
body. They can render themselves visible or invisible to human 
eyes. Their food is ambrosia and nectar ; their movements are 
swift as light. They may suffer pain ; but death can never come 
to them, for they are immortal. Their abode is Mount Olympus 
and the airy regions above the earth. 

Lesser Deities and Monsters. — Besides the great gods and 
goddesses that constituted the Olympian council there was an 
almost infinite number of other deities, celestial personages, and 
monsters neither human nor divine. 

Hades (Pluto) ruled over the lower realms ; Dionysus (Bac- 
chus) was the god of wine ; the goddess Nemesis was the pun- 
isher of crime, and particularly the queller of the proud and 
arrogant ; ^olus was the ruler of the winds, which he confined in 
a cave secured by mighty gates. 

There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. The Nymphs 
were beautiful maidens, who peopled the woods, the fields, the 
rivers, the lakes, and the ocean. Three Fates allotted life and 
death, and three Furies (Eumenides or Erinnyes) avenged crime, 

1 The Latin names of these divinities are as follows: Zeus = Jupiter; 
Poseidon = Neptune; Apollo = Apollo ; Ares = Mars; Hephaestus = Vulcan; 
Hermes = Mercury; Hera = Juno; Athena = Minerva; Artemis = Diana; 
Aphrodite = Venus; Hestia = Vesta; Demeter = Ceres. 

These Latin names, however, are not the equivalents of the Greek names, 
and should not be used as such. The mythologies of the Hellenes and 
Romans were as distinct as their languages. Consult Rawlinson's Religions 
of the Ancient World. 



104 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 

especially murder and unnatural crimes. The Gorgons were 
three sisters, with hair entwined with serpents. A single gaze 
upon them chilled the beholder to stone. Besides these there 
were Scylla and Charybdis, sea-monsters that made perilous the 
passage of the Sicilian Straits, the Centaurs, the Cyclops, Cerberus, 
the watch-dog of Hades, and a thousand others. 

Many at least of these monsters were simply personifications of 
the human passions or of the malign and destructive forces of 
nature. Thus, the Furies were the embodiment of an aroused and 
accusing conscience ; the Gorgons were tempests, which lash the 
sea into a fury that paralyzes the affrighted sailor ; Scylla and 
Charybdis were dangerous whirlpools off the coast of Sicily. To 
the common people at least, however, they were real creatures, 
with all the parts and habits given them by the poets. 

Modes of Divine Communication. — In the early ages the gods 
were wont, it was believed, to visit the earth and mingle with men. 
But even in Homer's time this familiar intercourse was a thing 
of the past — a tradition of a golden age that had passed away. 
Their forms were no longer seen, their voices no longer heard. 
In these later and more degenerate times the recognized modes 
of divine communication with men were by oracles, and by casual 
and unusual sights and sounds, as thunder and lightning, a sudden 
tempest, an eclipse, a flight of birds, — particularly of birds that 
mount to a great height, as these were supposed to know the 
secrets of the heavens, — the appearance or action of the sacrifi- 
cial victims, or any strange coincidence. The art of interpreting 
these signs or omens was called the art of divination. 

Oracles. — But though the gods might reveal their will and inten- 
tions through signs and portents, still they granted a more special 
communication of counsel through what were known as oi-acles. 
These communications, it was believed, were made by Zeus, and 
especially by Apollo, who was the god of prophecy, the Revealer. 

Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these gods mani- 
fest their presence and communicate the divine will. These 
favored spots were called oracles, as were also the responses there 



ORACLES. 105 

received. There were twenty-two oracles of Apollo in different 
parts of the Grecian world, but a much smaller number of those 
of Zeus. These were usually situated in wild and desolate spots 
— in dark forests or among gloomy mountains. 

The most renowned of the oracles was that of the Pelasgian 
Zeus at Dodona, in Epirus, and that of Apollo at Delphi, in Phocis. 
At Dodona the priests listened in the dark forests for the voice of 
Zeus in the rustling leaves of the sacred oak. At Delphi there 
was a deep fissure in the ground, which emitted stupefying vapors, 
that were thought to be the inspiring breath of Apollo. Over the 
spot was erected a splendid temple, in honor of the oracle. The 
revelation was generally received by the Pythia, or priestess, seated 
upon a tripod placed over the orifice. As she became overpow- 
ered by the influence of the prophetic exhalations, she uttered the 
message of the god. These mutterings of the Pythia were taken 
down by attendant priests, interpreted, and written in hexameter 
verse. Sometimes the will of Zeus was communicated to the pious 
seeker by dreams and visions granted to him while sleeping in the 
temple of the oracle. 

The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world : it 
was often consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of 
Rome in times of extreme danger and perplexity. Among the 
Greeks scarcely any undertaking was entered upon without the will 
and sanction of the oracle being first sought. 

Especially true was this in the founding of colonies. Apollo 
was believed " to take delight in the foundation of new cities." 
No colony could prosper that had not been established under the 
superintendence of the Delphian god. 

Some of the responses of the oracle contained plain and whole- 
some advice ; but very many of them, particularly those that 
implied a knowledge of the future, were obscure and ingeniously 
ambiguous, so that they might correspond with the event however 
affairs should turn. Thus, Croesus is told that, if he undertake an 
expedition against Persia, he will destroy a great empire. He did, 
indeed ; — but the empire was his own. 



106 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 

The Delphian oracle was at the height of its fame before the 
Persian War ; in that crisis it did not take a bold or patriotic stand, 
and its reputation was sensibly impaired. 

Ideas of the Future. — To the Greeks life was so bright and 
joyous a thing that they looked upon death as a great calamity. 
They therefore pictured life after death, except in the case of a 
favored few, as being hopeless and aimless.^ The Elysian Fields, 
away in the land of sunset, were, indeed, filled with every delight ; 
but these were the abode only of the great heroes and benefactors 
of the race. So long as the body remained unburied, the soul 
wandered restless in Hades ; hence the sacredness of the rites of 
sepulture. 

The Sacred Games. — The celebrated games of the Greeks had 
their origin in the belief of their Aryan ancestors that the souls 
of the dead were gratified by such spectacles as delighted them 
during their earthly Hfe. During the Heroic Age these festivals 
were simply sacrifices or games performed at the tomb, or about 
the pyre of the dead. Gradually these grew into religious festi- 
vals observed by an entire city or community, and were celebrated 
near the oracle or shrine of the god in whose honor they were 
instituted ; the idea now being that the gods were present at the 
festival, and took delight in the various contests and exercises. 

Among these festivals, four acquired a world-wide celebrity. 
These were the Olympian, celebrated in honor of Zeus, at Olympia, 
in the Peloponnesus ; the Pythian, in honor of Apollo, near his 
shrine and oracle at Delphi ; the Nemean, in honor of Zeus, at 
Nemea ; and the Isthmian, held in honor of Poseidon, on the 
isthmus of Corinth. 

The Olympian Games. — Of these four festivals the Olympian 
secured the greatest renown. In 776 B.C. Coroebus was victor in 

1 Homer makes the shade of the great Achilles in Hades to say : — 

" I would be 
A laborer on earth, and serve for hire 
Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, 
Rather than reign o'er all who have gone down 
To death." — Od. XI. 489-90 [Bryant's Trans.]. 



INFLUENCE OF THE GRECIAN GAMES. 107 

the foot-race at Olympia, and as from that time the names of the 
victors were carefully registered, that year came to be used by the 
Greeks as the starting-point in their chronology. The games were 
held every fourth year, and the interval between two successive 
festivals was known as an Olympiad. 

The contests consisted of foot-races, boxing, wrestling, and 
other athletic games. Later, chariot-racing was introduced, and 
became the most popular of all the contests. The competitors 
must be of the Hellenic race ; and must, moreover, be unblemished 
by any crime against the state or sin against the gods. Specta- 
tors from all parts of the world crowded to the festival. 

The victor was crowned with a garland of wild olive ; heralds 
proclaimed his name abroad ; his native city received him as a 
conqueror, sometimes through a breach made in the city walls ; 
his statues, executed by eminent artists, were erected at Olympia 
and in his own city ; sometimes even divine honor and worship 
were accorded to him ; and poets and orators vied with the artist 
in perpetuating the name and deeds of him who had reflected 
undying honor upon his native state. 

Influence of the Grecian Games. — For more than a thousand 
years these national festivals exerted an immense influence upon 
the literary, social, and religious life of Hellas. They enkindled 
among the widely scattered Hellenic states and colonies a com- 
mon literary taste and enthusiasm ; for into all the four great 
festivals, excepting the Olympian, were introduced, sooner or later, 
contests in poetry, oratory, and history. During the festivals, 
poets and historians read their choicest productions, and artists 
exhibited their masterpieces. The extraordinary honors accorded 
to the victors stimulated the contestants to the utmost, and strung 
to the highest tension every power of body and mind. To this 
fact we owe some of the grandest productions of the Greek race. 
■ They moreover promoted intercourse and trade ; for the festi- 
vals became great centres of traffic and exchange during the 
continuance of the games. They softened, too, the manners of 
the people, turning their thoughts from martial exploits and giving 



108 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 

the states respite from war ; for during the month in which the re- 
hgious games were held it was sacrilegious to engage in miHtary 
expeditions. In all these ways, though they never drew the states 
into a common poHtical union, still they did impress a common 
character upon their social, intellectual, and religious life. 

The Amphictyonic Council. — Closely connected with the re- 
ligious festivals were the so-called Amphictyonies, or " leagues 
of neighbors." These were associations of a number of cities or 
tribes for the celebration of religious rites at some shrine, or for 
the protection of some particular temple. 

Pre-eminent among all such unions was that known as the 
Delphic Amphictyony, or simply The Amphictyony. This was a 
league of twelve of the sub-tribes of Hellas, whose main object 
was the protection of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Another 
of its purposes was, by humane regulations, to mitigate the cruel- 
ties of war. 

The so-called First Sacred War (600-590 e.g.) was a crusade 
of ten years carried on by the Amphictyons against the cities 
of Crissa and Cirrha for their robbery of the treasures of the 
Delphian temple. The cities were finally taken, levelled to the 
ground, and the wrath of the gods invoked upon any one who 
should dare to rebuild them. The spoils of the war were devoted 
to the establishment of musical contests in honor of the Delphian 
Apollo. Thus originated the renowned Pythian festivals, to which 
allusion has just been made. 



THE TYRANTS. 109 



CHAPTER XII. 

AGE OF THE TYRANTS AND OF COLONIZATION: THE EARLY 
GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 

(776-500 B.C.) 

I. Age of the Tyr.\nts and of Colonization. 

The Tyrants. — In the Heroic Age the preferred form of gov- 
ernment was a patriarchal monarchy. The Iliad says, '■' The rule 
of many is not a good thing : let us have one ruler only, — one 
king, — him to whom Zeus has given the sceptre." But by the 
dawn of the historic period, the patriarchal monarchies of the 
Achaean age had given place, in almost all the Grecian cities, to 
oligarchies or aristocracies. 

The Oligarchies give Way to Tyrannies. — The nobles into 
whose hands the ancient royal authority thus passed were often 
divided among themselves, and invariably opposed by the common 
freemen, who, as they grew in intelhgence and wealth, naturally 
aspired to a place in the government. The issue of long conten- 
tions was the overthrow almost everywhere of oligarchical govern- 
ment and the establishment of the rule of a single person. 

Usually this person was one of the nobility, who held himself 
out as the champion of the people, and who with their help 
usurped the government. One who had thus seized the govern- 
ment was called a tyrant. By this term the Greeks did not mean 
one who rules harshly, but simply one who holds the supreme 
authority in the state illegally. Some of the Greek Tyrants were 
mild and beneficent rulers, though too often they were all that the 
name implies among us. 

But the Greeks always had an inextinguishable hatred of arbi- 
trary rule ; consequently the Tyrannies were, as a rule, short-lived, 



110 AGE OF THE TYRANTS. 

rarely lasting longer than three generations. They were usually 
violently overthrown, and the old oligarchies re-established, or 
democracies set up in their place. As a rule, the Dorian cities 
preferred oligarchical, and the Ionian cities democratical, govern- 
ment. The so-called Age of the Tyrants lasted from 650 to 
500 B.C. 

Among the most noted of the Tyrants were the Pisistratidae, at 
Athens, of whom we shall speak hereafter ; Periander at Corinth 
(625-585 B.C.), who was a most cruel ruler, yet so generous a 
patron of artists and literary men that he was thought worthy of a 
place among the Seven Sages ; and Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos 
(535-522 B.C.), who, with that island as a stronghold, and with a 
fleet of a hundred war-galleys, built up a sort of maritime king- 
dom in the ^gean, and for the space of more than a decade 
enjoyed such astonishing and uninterrupted prosperity, that it 
was believed his sudden downfall and death — he was allured to 
the Asian shore by a Persian satrap, and crucified — were brought 
about by the envy of the gods,^ who the Greeks thought were apt 
to be jealous of over-prosperous mortals. 

The Foundings of Colonies. — The Age of the Tyrants coincides 
very nearly with the era of greatest activity in the founding of new 
colonies. Thousands, driven from their homes, like the Puritans 
in the time of the Stuart tyranny in England, fled over the seas, 
and, under the direction of the Delphian Apollo, laid upon remote 
and widely separated shores the basis of " Dispersed Hellas." 
The overcrowding of population and the Greek love of adventure 
also contributed to swell the number of emigrants. During this 

1 Herodotus tells how Amasis of Egypt, the friend and ally of the Tyrant, 
becoming alarmed at his extraordinary course of good fortune, wrote him, 
begging him to interrupt it and disarm the envy of the gods, by sacrificing his 
most valued possession. Polycrates, acting upon the advice, threw into the 
sea a precious ring, which he highly prized; but soon afterwards the jewel 
was found by his servants in a fish that a fisherman had brought to the palace 
as a present for Polycrates. When Amasis heard of this, he at once broke off 
his alliance with the Tyrant, feeling sure that he was fated to suffer some ter- 
rible reverse of fortune. The event justified his worst fears. 



i6 



40 



32 



v- 



\ 



^ 



^'''a"»«/5i<, < 



■Art, 



^"Pion'^, 



G 



a 



ti 



■^"^Poriai C 



f«ssn!?j<j 



OZ/na; 



<? 






ke.* 



GREECE 

and the 

GREEK COLONIES. 




) Sardinia 







Ionian 

Dorian. _ J — I 

Other Greek Baces I 1 

Phcenician 



j6 



24 



2S 



32 



36 



40 



OlUa] 











^^ 



^ 







THE FOUNDING OF COLONIES. HI 

colonizing era Southern Italy became so thickly set with Greek 
cities as to become known as Magna Gr(Ecia, '' Great Greece." 
Here were founded during the latter part of the eighth century 
B.C. the important Dorian city of Tarentum ; the wealthy and 
luxurious Achsean city of Sybaris (whence the term Sybarite, 
meaning a voluptuary) ; the Great Crotona, distinguished for its 
schools of philosophy and its victors in the Olympian games. 

Upon the island of Sicily was planted, by the Dorian Corinth, 
the city of Syracuse (734 B.C.), which, before Rome had become 
great, waged war on equal terms with Carthage. 

In the Gulf of Lyons was established about 600 b.c. the impor- 
tant Ionian city of Massalia (Marseilles), the radiating point of 
long routes of travel and trade. 

On the African coast was founded the great Dorian city of 
Cyrene (630 B.C.), and probably about the same time was estab- 
lished in the Nile delta the city of Naucratis, through which the 
civilization of Egypt flowed into Greece. 

The tide of emigration fl.owed not only to the west and south, 
but to the north as well. The northern shores of the ^-Egean and 
those of the Hellespont and the Propontis were fringed with colo- 
nies. The Argonautic terrors of the Black Sea were forgotten or 
unheeded, and even those remote shores received their emigrants. 
Many of the settlements in that quarter were established by the 
Ionian city of Miletus, which, swarming like a hive, became the 
mother of more than eighty colonies. 

Through this wonderful colonizing movement, Greece came to 
hold somewhat the same place in the ancient Mediterranean 
world that England as a colonizer occupies in the world of to- 
day. Many of these colonies not only reflected honor upon the 
mother land through the just renown of their citizens, but through 
their singularly free, active, and progressive life, they exerted upon 
her a most healthful and stimulating influence. 



112 AGE OF THE TYRANTS. 



2. The Growth of Sparta. 

Situation of Sparta. — Sparta was one of the cities of the 
Peloponnesus which owed their origin or importance to the 
Dorian Invasion (seep. 96). It was situated in the deep valley 
of the Eurotas, in Laconia, and took its name Sparta (sown land) 
from the circumstance that it was built upon tillable ground, 
whereas the heart and centre of most Greek cities consisted of a 
lofty rock (the citadel, or acropolis). It was also called Lace- 
daemon, after an early legendary king. 

Classes in the Spartan State. — In order to understand the 
social and political institutions of the Spartans, we must first 
notice the three classes — Spartans (Spartiatae), Perioeci, and 
Helots — into which the population of Laconia was divided. 

The Spartans proper were the descendants of the Dorian con- 
querors of the country. They composed but a small fraction of 
the entire population. Their relations to the conquered people 
were those of an army of occupation. Sparta, their capital, was 
simply a vast camp, unprotected by any walls until later and 
degenerate times. The martial valor of its citizens was thought 
its only proper defence. 

The Perioeci (dwellers -around), who constituted the second 
class, were the subjugated Achseans. They were allowed to retain 
possession of their lands, but were forced to pay tribute, and, in 
times of war, to fight for the glory and interest of their Spartan 
masters. 

The third and lowest class was composed of slaves, or serfs, 
called Helots. The larger number of these were laborers upon 
the estates of the Spartans. They were the property of the state, 
and not of the individual Spartan lords, among whom they were 
distributed by lot. Practically they had no rights which their 
Spartan masters felt bound to respect. It is affirmed that when 
they grew too numerous for the safety of the state, their numbers 
were thinned by a deliberate massacre of the surplus population. 

The Legend of Lycurgus. — The laws and customs of the Spar- 



KINGS, SENATE, AND ASSEMBLY. 113 

tans have excited more interest, perhaps, than any similar institu- 
tions of the ancient world. A mystery and halo were thrown about 
them by their being attributed to the creative genius of a single 
lawgiver, Lycurgus. 

Lycurgus, according to tradition, lived about the ninth century 
B.C. He is represented as acquainting himself with the laws and 
institutions of different lands, by converse with their priests and 
sages. He is said to have studied with great zeal the laws of 
Minos, the legendary lawgiver of the Cretans. Like the great 
legislator Moses, he became learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians. 

After much opposition, a system of laws and regulations drawn 
up by Lycurgus was adopted by the Spartan people. Then, bind- 
ing his countrymen by a solemn oath that they would carefully 
observe his laws during his absence, he set out on a pilgrimage 
to Delphi. In response to his inquiry, the oracle assured him 
that Sparta would endure and prosper as long as the people 
obeyed the laws he had given them. Lycurgus caused this 
answer to be carried to his countrymen ; and then, that they 
might remain bound by the oath they had taken, he resolved 
never to return. He went into an unknown exile. 

The Kings, the Senate, and the Popular Assembly. — The so- 
called Constitution of Lycurgus provided for two joint kings, a 
Senate of Elders, and a Popular Assembly. 

The two kings corresponded in some respects to the two consuls 
in the later Roman republic. One served as a check upon the 
other. This double sovereignty worked admirably ; for five cen- 
turies there were no attempts on the part of the Spartan kings to 
subvert the constitution. The power of the joint kings, it should 
be added, was rather nominal than real (save in time of war) ; 
so that while the Spartan government was monarchical in form, it 
was in reality an aristocracy, the Spartans corresponding very 
closely to the feudal lords of Mediaeval Europe. 

The Senate consisted of thirty elders. The powers of this body 
were at first almost unlimited. After a time, however, officers 



114 THE EARLY GROWTH OF SPARTA. 

called ephors were elected by the Popular Assembly, and these 
gradually absorbed the powers and functions of the Senate, as well 
as the authority of the two associate kings. 

The Popular Assembly was composed of all the citizens of 
Sparta over thirty years of age. By this body laws were made, 
and questions of peace and war decided. In striking contrast to 
what was the custom at Athens, all matters were decided without 
debate. The Spartans were fighters, not talkers ; they hated dis- 
cussion. 

Regulations as to Lands and Money. — At the time of Lycur- 
gus the lands of Laconia had become absorbed by the rich, leav- 
ing the masses in poverty and distress. It is certain that the 
lawgiver did much to remedy this ruinous state of affairs. Tradi- 
tion says that all the lands were redisjtributed, an equal portion 
being assigned to each of the nine thousand Spartan citizens, and 
a smaller and less desirable portion to each of the thirty thousand 
Perioeci, — but it is not probable that there was any such exact 
equalization of property. 

The Spartans were forbidden to engage in trade ; all their time 
must be passed in the chase, or in gymnastic and martial exercise. 
Iron was made the sole money of the state. This, according to 
Plutarch, " was of great size and weight, and of small value, so that 
the equivalent for ten minae (about ^140) required a great room 
for its stowage, and a yoke of oxen to draw it." The object of 
this, he tell us, was to prevent its being used for the purchase of 
"foreign trumpery." 

The Public Tables. — The most peculiar, perhaps, of the Lycur- 
gean institutions were the public meals. In order to correct the 
extravagance with which the tables of the rich were often spread, 
Lycurgus ordered that all the Spartan citizens should eat at public 
and common tables. Excepting the ephors, none, not even the 
kings, were excused from sitting at the common mess. One of 
the kings, returning from a long expedition, presumed to dine 
privately with his wife, but received therefor a severe reproof. 

A luxury-loving Athenian, once visiting Sparta and seeing the 



EDUCATION OF THE YOUTH. 115 

coarse fare of the citizens, is reported to have declared that now 
he understood the Spartan disregard of Hfe in battle. "Any one," 
said he, "must naturally prefer death to life on such fare as this." 

Education of the Youth. — Children were considered as belong- 
ing to the state. Every infant was brought before the Council 
of Elders ; and if it did not seem likely to become a robust and 
useful citizen, it was exposed in a mountain glen. At seven the 
education and training of the youth were committed to the charge 
of public officers, called boy-trainers. The aim of the entire 
course, as to the boys, was to make a nation of soldiers who should 
despise toil and danger and prefer death to military dishonor. 
Reading and writing were untaught, and the art of rhetoric was 
despised. Spartan brevity was a proverb, whence our word laconic 
(from Laconia), implying a concise and pithy mode of expression. 
Boys were taught to respond in the fewest words possible. At 
the pubHc tables they were not permitted to speak until ques- 
tioned : they sat " silent as statues." As Plutarch puts it, " Lycur- 
gus was for having the money bulky, heavy, and of little value ; 
and the language, on the contrary, very pithy and short, and a 
great deal of sense compressed in a few words." 

But before all things else the Spartan youth was taught to bear 
pain unflinchingly. Often he was scourged just for the purpose of 
accustoming his body to pain. Frequently, it is said, boys died 
under the lash, without betraying their suffering by look or moan. 

Another custom tended to the same end as the foregoing usage. 
The boys were at times compelled to forage for their food. If 
detected, they were severely punished for having been so unskilful 
as not to get safely away with their booty. This custom, as well 
as the fortitude of the Spartan youth, is familiar to all through the 
story of the boy who, having stolen a young fox and concealed it 
beneath his tunic, allowed the animal to tear out his vitals, without 
betraying himself by the movement of a muscle. 

The Cryptia, which has been represented as an organization of 
young Spartans who were allowed, as a means of rendering them- 
selves ready and expert in war, to hunt and kill the Helots, seems 



116 THE EARLY GROWTH OF SPARTA. 

in reality to have been a sort of police institution, designed to 
guard against uprisings of the serfs. 

Estimate of the Spartan Institutions. — That the laws and 
regulations of the Spartan constitution were admirably adapted to 
the end in view, — the rearing of a nation of skilful and resolute 
warriors, — the long military supremacy of Sparta among the states 
of Greece abundantly attests. But when we consider the aim and 
object of the Spartan institutions, we must pronounce them low 
and unworthy. The true order of things was just reversed among 
the Lacedaemonians. Government exists for the individual : at 
Sparta the individual lived for the state. The body is intended to 
be the instrument of the mind : the Spartans reversed this, and 
attended to the education of the mind only so far as its devel- 
opment enhanced the effectiveness of the body as a weapon in 
warfare. 

Spartan history teaches how easy it is for a nation, like an indi- 
vidual, to misdirect its energies — to subordinate the higher to 
the lower. It illustrates, too, the fact that only those nations that 
labor to develop that which is best and highest in man make help- 
ful contributions to the progress of the world. Sparta, in signifi- 
cant contrast to Athens, bequeathed nothing to posterity. 

The Messenian Wars. — The most important event in Spartan 
history between the age of Lycurgus and the commencement of 
the Persian War was the long contest with Messenia, known as the 
First and Second Messenian Wars (about 750-650 b.c). Mes- 
senia was one of the districts of the Peloponnesus which, hke 
Laconia, had been taken possession of by the Dorians at the time 
of the great invasion. 

It is told that the Spartans, in the second war, falling into 
despair, sent to Delphi for advice. The oracle directed them to 
ask Athens for a commander. The Athenians did not wish to aid 
the Lacedaemonians, yet dared not oppose the oracle. So they sent 
Tyrtaeus, a poet-schoolmaster, who they hoped and thought would 
prove of but little service to Sparta. Whatever truth there may 
be in this part of the story, it seems indisputable that during the 



GROWTH OF THE POWER OF SPARTA. 117 

Second Messenian War, Tyrtseus, an Attic poet, reanimated the 
drooping spirits of the Spartans by the energy of his martial strains. 
Perhaps it would not be too much to say that Sparta owed her final 
victory to the inspiring songs of this martial poet. 

The conquered Messenians were reduced to serfdom, and their 
condition made as degrading and bitter as that of the Helots 
of Laconia. Many, choosing exile, pushed out into the western 
seas in search of new homes. Some of the fugitives founded 
Rhegium, in Italy ; others, settHng in Sicily, gave name and im- 
portance to the still existing city of Messina. 

Growth of the Power of Sparta. — After having secured pos- 
session of Messenia, Sparta conquered the southern part of Argolis. 
All the southern portion of the Peloponnesus was now subject to 
her commands. 

On the north, Sparta extended her power over many of the vil- 
lages, or townships, of Arcadia ; but her advance in this direction 
having been checked by Tegea, one of the few important Arcadian 
cities, Sparta entered into an alliance with that city, which ever 
after remained her faithful friend and helper. This alliance was 
one of the main sources of Spartan preponderance in Greece 
during the next hundred years and more. 

Sparta was now the most powerful state in the Peloponnesus. 
Her fame was spread even beyond the hmits of Hellas. Croesus, 
king of Lydia, sought an alliance with her in his unfortunate war 
with Persia, which just now was the rising power in Asia. 

3. The Growth of Athens. 

The Attic People. — The population of Attica in historic times 
was essentially Ionian in race, but there were in it strains of other 
Hellenic stocks, besides some non-Hellenic elements as well. 
This mixed origin of the population is believed to be one secret 
of the versatile yet well-balanced character which distinguished 
the Attic people above all other branches of the Hellenic family. 
It is not the absolutely pure, but the mixed races, like the English 
people, that have made the largest contributions to civilization. 



118 



THE GROWTH OF ATHENS. 



The Site of Athens. — Four or five miles from the sea, a flat- 
topped rock, about one thousand feet in length and half as many 
in width, rises with abrupt cliffs, one hundred and fifty feet above 
the level of the plains of Attica. The security afforded by this 
eminence doubtless led to its selection as a stronghold by the early 
Attic settlers. Here a few buildings, perched upon the summit of 
the rock and surrounded by a palisade, constituted the beginning 
of the capital whose fame has spread over all the world. 

The Kings of Athens. — During the Heroic Age Athens was 
ruled by kings, like all the other Grecian cities. The names of 
Theseus and Codrus are the most noted of the regal line. 




THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS. (From a Photograph.) 



To Theseus tradition ascribed the work of uniting the different 
Attic villages, or cantons, twelve in number, into a single city, on 
the seat of the ancient Cecropia (see p. 92). This prehistoric 
union, however or by whomsoever effected, laid the basis of the 
greatness of Athens. 

Respecting Codrus, the following legend is told : At one time 
the Dorians from the Peloponnesus invaded Attica. Codrus hav- 
ing learned that an oracle had assured them of success if they 
spared the life of the Athenian king, disguised himself, and, with 
a single companion, made an attack upon some Spartan soldiers, 



THE ARCHONS. 119 

who instantly slew him. Discovering that the king of Athens had 
fallen by a Lacedaemonian sword, the Spartans despaired of taking 
the city, and withdrew from the country. 

The Archons (io5o?-6i2 b.c). — Codrus was the last king of 
Athens. His successor, elected by the nobles, was given simply 
the name of Archon, or Ruler, for the reason, it is said, that no 
one was thought worthy to bear the title of the divine Codrus. 
The real truth is, that the nobles were transforming the Homeric 
monarchy into an oligarchy, and to effect the change were taking 
away from the king his royal powers. At the outset there was but 
one Archon, elected for life ; later, there were nine, chosen 
annually. 

Throughout these early times the government was in the hands 
of the nobles ; the people, that is, the free farmers and artisans, 
having no part in the management of public affairs. The people 
at length demanded a voice in the government, or at least legal 
protection from the exactions and cruelties of the wealthy. 

The Laws of Draco (about 620 b.c). — To meet these de- 
mands, the nobles appointed one of their own number, Draco, to 
prepare a code of laws. He reduced existing customs and regu- 
lations to a definite and written constitution, assigning to the 
smallest offence the penalty of death. This cruel severity of the 
Draconian laws caused an Athenian orator to say of them that 
" they were written, not in ink, but in blood." But for their 
harshness Draco was net responsible : he did not make them ; 
their severity was simply a reflection of the harshness of those 
early times. 

The Rebellion of Cylon (612 b.c). — Soon after the enactment 
of Draco's laws, which naturally served only to increase the dis- 
content of the people, Cylon, a rich and ambitious noble, taking 
advantage of the state of affairs, attempted to overthrow the gov- 
ernment and make himself supreme. He seized the citadel of the 
Acropohs, where he was closely besieged by the Archons. Finally 
the xA.rchon Megacles offered the insurgents their lives on condi- 
tion of surrender. They accepted the offer, but fearing to trust 



120 THE GROWTH OF ATHENS. 

themselves among their enemies without some protection, fastened 
a string to a statue of Athena, and holding fast to this, descended 
from the citadel, into the streets of Athens. As they came in 
front of the altars of the Furies, the line broke ; and Megacles, 
professing to believe that this mischance indicated that the god- 
dess refused to shield them, caused them to be set upon and 
massacred. 

The people were alarmed lest the fierce anger of the avenging 
Furies had been incurred by the slaughter of prisoners in violation 
of a sacred oath and before their very altars. Calamities tha.t now 
befell the state deepened their apprehension. Thus the people 
were inflamed still more against the aristocracy. They demanded 
and finally secured the banishment of the Alcmaeonidae, the family 
to which Megacles belonged. Even the bones of the dead of the 
family were dug up, and cast beyond the frontiers. The people 
further insisted upon a fresh revision of the laws and a share in 
•the government. 

The Laws of Solon (594 b.c). — Solon, a man held in great 
esteem by all classes, was chosen to draw up a new code of laws. 
He repealed many of the cruel laws of Draco ; permitted the 
return of persons driven into exile ; gave relief to the debtor class, 
especially to the poor farmers, whose little plots were covered 
with mortgages, by reducing the value of the money in which they 
would have to make payment ; ordered those held in slavery for 
debt to be set free ; and cancelled all fines payable to the state. 
These measures caused contentment and prosperity to take the 
place, everywhere throughout Attica, of previous discontent and 
wretchedness. 

Changes in the Athenian Constitution. — The changes wrought 
by Solon in the political constitution of Athens were equally wise 
and beneficent. He divided all the citizens of Athens into four 
classes, according to their income. Only members of the first 
class could hold the office of Archon ; and only those of the first 
three classes were eligible to the Council of Elders ; but every mem- 
ber of all the classes had the right to vote in the popular assembly. 



TRIBUNAL OF THE AREOPAGUS. 121 

Thus property instead of birth was made the basis of pohtical 
rights. This completely changed the character of the government ; 
it was no longer an exclusive oligarchy. 

A council known as the Council of the Four Hundred was 
created by Solon. Its chief duties were to decide what matters 
might be discussed by the public assembly, and to execute the 
resolutions of that body. 

The Tribunal of the Areopagus. — Solon also enlarged the juris- 
diction of the celebrated Tribunal of the Areopagus, a venerable 
council that from time out of memory had been held on the Areopa- 
gus, or Mars' Hill, near the Acropolis. The judges sat beneath the 
open sky, that they might not be contaminated, it is said, by the 
breath of the criminals brought before them. To this court was 
committed the care of morals and religion. It was in the pres- 
ence of this venerable tribunal, six hundred years after Solon's 
time, that Paul stood when he made his eloquent defence of 
Christianity. 

The Public Assembly. — The public assembly, under the con- 
stitution of Solon, was made the most important of all the institu- 
tions of the state. It was the fountain of all power. Contrary to 
the rule in Sparta, any citizen had the right not only of voting, but 
of speaking on any question which the assembly had a right to 
discuss. Six thousand citizens were required to constitute a 
quorum to transact business in cases of special importance. This 
popular assembly grew into vast importance in later times. By it 
were discussed and decided questions affecting the entire Hellenic 
world. 

These laws and institutions of Solon laid the basis of the Athe- 
nian democracy. 

The Tyrant Pisistratus (560-527 b.c). — Solon had the mis- 
fortune of living to see his institutions used to set up a tyranny, by 
an ambitious kinsman, his nephew Pisistratus. This man courted 
popular favor, and called himself the " friend of the people." One 
day, having inflicted many wounds upon himself, he drove his 
chariot hastily into the public square, and pretended that he had 



122 THE GROWTH OF ATHENS. 

been thus set upon by the nobles, because of his devotion to the 
people's cause. The people, moved with sympathy and indigna- 
tion, voted him a guard of fifty men. Under cover of raising this 
company, Pisistratus gathered a much larger force, seized the 
Acropolis, and made himself master of Athens. Though twice 
expelled from the city, he as often returned, and finally succeeded 
in getting a permanent hold of the government. 

The rule of the usurper was mild, and under him Athens en- 
joyed a period of great prosperity. He adorned the city with 
temples and other splendid buildings, and constructed great aque- 
ducts. Just beyond the city walls, he laid out the Lyceum, a sort 
of public park, which became in after years the favorite resort of 
the philosophers and poets of Athens. He was a liberal patron 
of hterature ; and caused the Homeric poems to be collected and 
edited. He died 527 B.C., thirty-three years after his first seizure 
of the citadel. Solon himself said of him that he had no vice 
save ambition. 

Expulsion of the Tyrants from Athens (510 b.c). — The two 
sons of Pisistratus, Hippias and Hipparchus, succeeded to his 
power. At first they emulated the example of their father, and 
Athens flourished under their parental rule. But at length an 
unfortunate event gave an entirely different tone to the govern- 
ment. Hipparchus, having insulted a young noble, was assassi- 
nated. Hippias escaped harm, but the event caused him to 
become suspicious and severe. His rule now became a tyranny 
indeed, and was brought to an end in the following way. 

After his last return to Athens, Pisistratus had sent the "ac- 
cursed " Alcmaeonidse into a second exile. During this period 
of banishment an opportunity arose for them to efface the stain of 
sacrilege which was still supposed to cling to them on account 
of the old crime of Megacles. The temple at Delphi having been 
destroyed by fire, they contracted with the Amphictyons to rebuild 
it. They not only completed the work in the most honorable 
manner throughout, but even went so far beyond the terms of their 
contract as to use beautiful Parian marble for the front of the 



THE REFORM OF CLISTHENES. 123 

temple, when only common stone was required by the specifi- 
cations. 

By this act the exiled family won to such a degree the favor 
of the priests of the sacred college, that they were able to influ- 
ence the utterances of the oracle. The invariable answer now of 
the Pythia to Spartan inquirers at the shrine was, " Athens must 
be set free." 

Moved at last by the repeated injunctions of the oracle, the 
Spartans resolved to drive Hippias from Athens. Their first at- 
tempt was unsuccessful ; but in a second they were so fortunate as 
to capture the two children of the tyrant, who, to secure their re- 
lease, agreed to leave the city (510 B.C.). He retired to Asia 
Minor, and spent the rest of his life, as we shall learn hereafter, 
seeking aid in different quarters to re-establish his tyranny in 
Athens. The Athenians passed a decree of perpetual exile against 
him and all his family. 

The Reforms of Clisthenes (509 b.c). — Straightway upon the 
expulsion of the Tyrant Hippias, there arose a great strife between 
the people, who of course wished to organize the government in 
accord with the constitution of Solon, and the nobles, who desired 
to re-establish the old aristocratical rule. Clisthenes, an aristo- 
crat, espoused the cause of the popular party. Through his influ- 
ence several important changes in the constitution, which rendered 
it still more democratical than under Solon, were now effected. 

Athenian citizenship was conferred upon all the free inhabitants 
of Attica. This made such a radical change in the constitution 
in the interest of the masses, that Clisthenes rather than Solon is 
regarded by many as the real founder of the Athenian democracy. 

Ostracism. — But of all the innovations or institutions of Clis- 
thenes, that known as ostracism was the most characteristic. By 
means of this process any person who had excited the suspicions 
or displeasure of the people could, without trial, be banished from 
Athens for a period of ten years. Six thousand votes cast against 
any person in a meeting of the popular assembly was a decree of 
banishment. The name of the person whose banishment was 



124 THE GROWTH OF ATHENS. 

sought was written on a piece of pottery or a shell (in Greek 
ostrakon), hence the term ostracism. 

The original design of this institution was to prevent the recur- 
rence of such a usurpation as that of the Pisistratidae. The priv- 
ilege and power it gave the people were often abused, and many 
of the ablest and best statesmen of Athens were sent into exile 
through the influence of some demagogue who for the moment 
had caught the popular ear. 

No stigma or disgrace attached to the person ostracized. The 
vote came to be employed, as a rule, simply to settle disputes 
between rival leaders of political parties. Thus the vote merely 
expressed political preference, the ostracized person being simply 
the defeated candidate for popular favor. 

The institution was short-lived. It was resorted to for the last 
time during the Peloponnesian War (417 B.C.). The people then, 
in a freak, ostracized a man whom all admitted to be the meanest 
man in Athens. This was regarded as such a degradation of the 
institution, as well as such an honor to the mean man, that never 
thereafter did the Athenians degrade a good man, or honor a bad 
one, by a resort to the measure. 

Sparta opposes the Athenian Democracy. — The aristocratic 
party at Athens was naturally bitterly opposed to all these demo- 
cratic innovations. The Spartans, also, viewed with disquiet and 
jealousy this rapid growth of the Athenian democracy, and tried 
to overthrow the new government and restore Hippias to power. 
But they did not succeed in their purpose, and Hippias went away 
to Persia to seek aid of King Darius. His solicitations, in con- 
nection with an affront which the Athenians just now offered the 
king himself by aiding his revolted subjects in Ionia, led directly 
up to the memorable struggle known as the Graeco- Persian wars. 



EXPEDITIONS OF DARIUS. 



125 




GREEK WARRIORS PREPARING FOR BATTLE, 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE GRiECO-PERSIAN WARS. 



(500-479 B.C.) 

Expeditions of Darius against Greece. — In narrating the his- 
tory of the Persians, we told how Darius, after having subdued the 
revolt of his Ionian subjects in Asia Minor, turned his armaments 
against the European Greeks, to punish them for the part they had 
taken in the capture and burning of Sardis. It will be recalled 
how ill-fated was his first expedition, which was led by his son-in 
law Mardonius (see p. 80). 

Undismayed by this disaster, Darius issued orders for the rais- 
ing and equipping of another and stronger armament. Meanwhile 
he sent heralds to the various Grecian states to demand earth and 
water, which elements among the Persians were symbols of submis- 
sion. The weaker states gave the tokens required ; but the Athe- 
nians and Spartans threw the envoys of the king into pits and wells, 
and bade them help themselves to earth and water. By the begin- 
ning of the year 490 B.C., another Persian army of 120,000 men 



126 THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 

had been mustered for the second attempt upon Greece. This 
armament was intrusted to the command of the experienced gen- 
erals Datis and Artaphernes ; but was under the guidance of the 
traitor Hippias. A fleet of six hundred ships bore the army from 
the coasts of Asia Minor over the ^Egean towards the Grecian 
shores. 

After receiving the submission of the most important of the 
Cyclades, and capturing and sacking the city of Eretria upon the 
island of Euboea, the Persians landed at Marathon, barely two days' 
journey from Athens. Here is a sheltered bay, which is edged by 
a crescent-shaped plain, backed by the rugged ranges of Parnes 
and Pentelicus. Upon this level ground the Persian generals 
drew up their army, flushed and confident with their recent suc- 
cesses. 

The Battle of Marathon (490 b.c). — The Athenians were 
nerved by the very magnitude of the danger to almost superhuman 
energy. Slaves were transformed into soldiers by the promise of 
liberty. A fleet runner, Phidippides by name, was despatched to 
Sparta for aid. In just thirty-six hours he was in Sparta, which is 
one hundred and fifty miles from Athens. But it so happened that 
it lacked a few days of the full moon, during which interval the 
Spartans, owing to an old superstition, were averse to setting out 
upon a military expedition. They promised aid, but moved only 
in time to reach Athens when all was over. The Platseans, firm 
and grateful friends of the Athenians, on account of some former 
service, no sooner received the latter's appeal for help than they 
responded to a man. 

The Athenians and their faithful allies, numbering about ten thou- 
sand in all, under the command of Miltiades, were drawn up in 
battle array just where the hills of Pentelicus sink down into the 
plain of Marathon. The vast host of the Persians filled the level 
ground in their front. The fate of Greece and the future of Europe 
were in the keeping of Miltiades and his trusty warriors. Without 
waiting for the attack of the Persians, the Greeks charged and 
swept like a tempest from the mountain over the plain, pushed the 



THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. 127 

Persians back towards the shore, and with great slaughter drove 
them to their ships. 

Miltiades at once despatched a courier to Athens with intelH- 
gence of his victory. The messenger reached the city in a few 
hours, but so breathless from his swift run that, as the people 
thronged eagerly around him to hear the news he bore, he could 
merely gasp, " Victory is ours," and fell dead. 

But the danger was not yet past. The Persian fleet, instead of 
returning to the coast of Asia, bore down upon Athens. Informed 
by wa;tchers on the hills of the movements of the enemy, Miltiades 
immediately set out with his little army for the capital, which he 
reached just at evening, the battle at Marathon having been won 
in the forenoon of that same day. The next morning, when the 
Persian generals would have made an attack upon the city, they 
found themselves confronted by the same men who but yesterday 
had beaten them back from the plains of Marathon. Shrinking 
from another encounter with these citizen-soldiers of Athens, the 
Persians spread their sails, and bore away towards the Ionian 
shore. 

Thus the cloud that had lowered so threateningly over Hellas 
was for a time dissipated. The most imposing honors were ac- 
corded to the heroes who had achieved the glorious victory, and 
their names and deeds were transmitted to posterity, in song and 
marble. And as the gods were believed to have interposed in 
behalf of Greece, suitable recognition of their favor was made in 
gifts and memorials. A considerable part of the brazen arms and 
shields gathered from the battle-field was melted into a colossal 
statue of Athena, which was placed upon the Acropolis, as the 
guardian of Athens. 

Results of the Battle of Marathon. — The battle of Marathon 
is reckoned as one of the " decisive battles of the world." It marks 
an epoch, not only in the life of Greece, but in that of Europe. 
Hellenic civilization was spared to mature its fruit, not for itself 
alone, but for the world. The battle decided that no longer the 
despotism of the East, with its repression of all individual action, 



128 THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 

but the freedom of the West, with all its incentives to personal 
effort, should control the affairs and mould the ideas and institu- 
tions of the future. It broke the spell of the Persian name, and 
destroyed forever the prestige of the Persian arms. It gave the 
Hellenic peoples that position of authority and pre-eminence that 
had been so long enjoyed by the successive races of the East. It 
especially revealed the Athenians to themselves. The conscious- 
ness of resources and power became the inspiration of their future 
acts. They performed great deeds thereafter because they beHeved 
themselves able to perform them. 

Miltiades falls into Disg^race. — The distinguished services 
Miltiades had rendered his country, made him the hero of the 
hour at Athens. Taking advantage of the pubhc feeling in his favor, 
he persuaded the Athenians to put in his hands a fleet for an enter- 
prise respecting the nature of which no one save himself was to 
know anything whatever. Of course it was generally supposed 
that he meditated an attack upon the Persians or their allies, and 
with full faith in the judgment as well as in the integrity of their 
favorite, the Athenians gave him the command he asked. 

But Miltiades abused the confidence imposed in him. He led 
the expedition against the island of Paros, simply to avenge some 
private wrong. The undertaking was unsuccessful, and Miltiades, 
severely wounded, returned to Athens, where he was brought to 
trial for his conduct. His never-to-be-forgotten services at Mara- 
thon pleaded eloquently for him, and he escaped being sentenced 
to death, but was subjected to a heavy fine. This he was unable 
to pay, and in a short time he died of his wound. The unfortu- 
nate affair left an ineffaceabie blot upon a fame otherwise the most 
resplendent in Grecian story. 

Athens prepares for Persian Vengeance. — Many among the 
Athenians were inclined to believe that the battle of Marathon 
had freed Athens forever from the danger of a Persian invasion. 
But there was at least one among them who Avas clear-sighted 
enough to see that that battle was only the beginning of a great 
struggle. This was Themistocles, a sagacious, versatile, and am- 



PREPARATIONS TO INVADE GREECE. 129 

bitious statesman, who labored to persuade the Athenians to 
strengthen their navy, in order to be ready to meet the danger he 
foresaw. 

Themistocles was opposed in this poHcy by Aristides, called 
the Just, a man of the most scrupulous integrity, who feared that 
Athens would make a serious mistake if she converted her land 
force into a naval armament. The contention grew so sharp 
between them that the ostracism was called into use to decide 
the matter. Six thousand votes were cast against Aristides, and 
he was sent into exile. 

It is related that while the vote that ostracized him was being 
taken in the popular assembly, an illiterate peasant, who was a 
stranger to Aristides, asked him to write the name of Aristides 
upon his tablet. As he placed the name desired upon the shell, 
the statesman asked the man what wrong Aristides had ever done 
him. '' None," responded the voter ; " I don't even know him ; 
but I am tired of hearing him called ' the Just.' " 

After the banishment of Aristides, Themistocles was free to 
carry out his naval policy without any serious opposition, and 
soon Athens had the largest fleet of any Greek city, with a harbor 
at Piraeus. 

Xerxes' Preparations to invade Greece. — No sooner had the 
news of the disaster at Marathon been carried to Darius than he 
began to make gigantic preparations to avenge this second defeat 
and insult. It was in the midst of these plans for revenge that, 
as we have already learned, death cut short his reign, and his son 
Xerxes came to the throne (see p. 80). 

Urged on by his nobles, as well as by exiled Greeks at his court, 
who sought to gratify ambition or enjoy revenge in the humiliation 
and ruin of their native land, Xerxes, though at first disinclined 
to enter into a contest with the Greeks, at length ordered the 
preparations begun by his father to be pushed forward with the 
utmost energy. For eight years all Asia resounded with the din 
of preparation. Levies were made upon all the provinces that 
acknowledged the authority of the Great King, from India to the 



130 THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 

Hellespont. Vast contingents of vessels were furnished by the 
coast countries of the Mediterranean. Immense stores of provis- 
ions, the harvests of many years, were gathered into great store- 
houses along the intended line of march. 

While all these preparations were going on in Asia itself, Phoe- 
nician and Egyptian architects were employed in spanning the 
Hellespont with a double bridge of boats, which was to unite the 
two continents as with a royal highway. At the same time, the 
isthmus at Mount Athos, in rounding which promontory the ad- 
mirals of Mardonius had lost their fleet, was cut by a canal, traces 
of which may be seen at this day. Three years were consumed in 
these gigantic works. With them completed, or far advanced, 
Xerxes set out from his capital to join the countless hosts that 
from all quarters of the compass were gathering at Sardis, in Asia 
Minor. 

Disunion of the Greeks: Congress at Corinth (481 e.g.). — 
Startling rumors of the gigantic preparations that the Persian king 
was making to crush them were constantly borne across the ^Egean 
to the ears of the Greeks in Europe. Finally came intelhgence 
that Xerxes was about to begin his march. Something must now 
be done to meet the impending danger. Mainly through the 
exertions of Themistocles, a council of the Greek cities was con- 
vened at Corinth in the fall of 481 B.C. 

But on account of feuds, jealousies, and party spirit, only a 
small number of the states of Hellas could be brought to act 
in concert. Argos would not join the proposed confederation 
through hatred of Sparta ; Thebes, through jealousy of Athens. 
The Cretans, to whom an embassy had been sent soliciting aid, 
refused all assistance. Gelon, the Tyrant of Syracuse, offered to 
send over a large armament, provided that he were given the 
chief command of the allied forces. His aid on such terms was 
refused. 

Thus, through different causes, many of the Greek cities held 
aloof from the confederation, so that only about fifteen or sixteen 
states were brought to unite their resources against the Barbarians ; 



THE HELLESPONTINE BRIDGES BROKEN. 131 

and even the strength of many of those cities that did enter into 
the alhance was divided by party spirit. The friends of aris- 
tocrati:al government were almost invariably friends of Persia, 
because a Persian victory in Greece proper meant what it had 
already meant in Ionia, — a suppression of the democracies as 
incompatible with the Persian form of government. Thus for the 
sake of a party victory, the aristocrats were ready to betray their 
country into the hands of the Barbarians. Furthermore, the Del- 
phian oracle, aristocratical in its sympathies, was luke-warm and 
wavering, if not actually disloyal, and by its timid responses, dis- 
heartened the patriot party. 

But under the inspiration of Themistocles the patriots in con- 
vention at Corinth determined upon desperate resistance to the 
Barbarians, It was at first decided to concentrate a strong force 
in the Vale of Tempe, and at that point to dispute the advance 
of the enemy ; but this being found impracticable, it was resolved 
that the first stand against the invaders should be made at the pass 
of Thermopylae. 

The Spartans were given the chief command of both the land 
and the naval forces. The Athenians might fairly have insisted 
upon their right to the command of the alhed fleet, but they patri- 
otically waived their claim, for the sake of harmony. 

The HeUespontine Bridges broken. — As the vast army of 
Xerxes was about to move from Sardis, intelligence came that the 
bridges across the Hellespont had been wrecked by a violent tem- 
pest. It is said that Xerxes, in great wrath, ordered the architects 
to be put to death, and the sea to be bound with fetters and 
scourged. The scourgers faithfully performed their duty, at the 
same time gratuitously cursing the traitorous and rebellious Helles- 
pont with what Herodotus calls " non-Heflenic and blasphemous 
terms." 

Other architects spanned the channel with two stronger and 
firmer bridges. Each roadway rested upon a row of from three 
to four hundred vessels, all securely anchored like modern pon- 
toons. The bridges were each about one mile in length, and fur- 



132 THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 

nished with high parapets, that the horses and cattle might not be 
rendered uneasy at sight of the water. 

Passage of the Hellespont. — With the first indications of the 
opening spring of 480 B.C., just ten years after the defeat at Mara- 
thon, the vast Persian army was astir and concentrating from all 
points upon the Hellespont. The passage of this strait, as pictured 
to us in the inimitable narration of Herodotus, is one of the most 
dramatic of all the spectacles afforded by history. 

Before the passage commenced, the bridges were strewn with 
the sacred myrtle and perfumed with incense from golden censers, 
while the sea was placated with libations poured by the king him- 
self. As the east reddened with the approach of day, prayers 
were offered, and the moment the rays of the sun touched the 
bridges the passage began. To avoid accidents and delays, the 
trains of baggage wagons and the beasts of burden crossed by one 
causeway, leaving the other free for the march of the army. The 
first of the host to cross was the sacred guard of the Great King, 
the Ten Thousand Immortals, all crowned with garlands as in festi- 
val procession. Preceding the king, the gorgeous Chariot of the 
Sun moved slowly, drawn by eight milk-white steeds. Herodotus 
affirms that for seven days and seven nights the bridges groaned 
beneath the living tide that Asia was pouring into Europe.^ 

Battle of Thermopylae (480 b.c). — Leading from Thessaly 
into Central Greece is a narrow pass, pressed on one side by the 
sea and on the other by rugged mountain ridges. At the foot of 
the cliffs break forth several hot springs, whence the name of the 
pass, Thermopylae, or " Hot Gates." 

At this point, in accordance with the decision of the Corinthian 
Congress, was offered the first resistance to the progress of the 
Persian army. Leonidas, king of Sparta, with three hundred 
Spartan soldiers and about six thousand allies from different states 

1 According to Herodotus, the land and naval forces of Xerxes amounted 
to 2,317,000 men, besides about 2,000,000 slaves and attendants. It is believed 
that these figures are a great exaggeration, and that the actual number of the 
Persian army could not have exceeded 900,000 men. 



BATTLE OF THERMOPYLyE. 133 

of Greece, held the pass. As the Greeks were about to celebrate 
the Olympian games, which their religious scruples would not allow 
them to postpone, they left this handful of men unsupported to hold 
in check the army of Xerxes until the festival days should be past. 

The Spartans could be driven from their advantageous position 
only by an attack in front, as the Grecian fleet prevented Xerxes 
from landing a force in their rear. Before assaulting them, Xerxes 
summoned them to give up their arms. The answer of Leonidas 
was, "Come and take them." For two days the Persians tried 
to storm the pass. The Asiatics were driven to the attack by 
their officers armed with whips. But every attempt to force the 
way was repulsed ; even the Ten Thousand Immortals were hurled 
back from the Spartan front like waves from a cliff. 

But an act of treachery on the part of a native Greek rendered 
unavailing all the bravery of the keepers of the pass. A by-way 
leading over the mountains to the rear of the Spartans was 
revealed to Xerxes. The startling inteUigence was brought to 
Leonidas that the Persians were descending the mountain-path 
in his rear. He saw instantly that all was lost. The allies were 
permitted to seek safety in flight while opportunity remained. But 
to him and his Spartan companions there could be no thought of 
retreat. Death in the pass, the defence of which had been 
intrusted to them, was all that Spartan honor and Spartan law 
now left them. The next day, surrounded by the Persian host, 
they fought with desperate valor; but, overwhelmed by mere 
numbers, they were slain to the last man. With them also per- 
ished seven hundred Thespians who had chosen death with their 
companions. Over the bodies of the Spartan soldiers a monu- 
ment was afterwards erected with this inscription : " Stranger, tell 
the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedience to their orders." 

The Burning of Athens. — Athens now lay open to the invaders. 
The Peloponnesians, thinking of their own safety simply, com- 
menced throwing up defences across the isthmus of Corinth, work- 
ing day and night under the imjDulse of an almost insane fear. 
Athens was thus left outside to care for herself. 



134 THE GRy^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 

Counsels were divided. The Delphian oracle had obscurely 
declared, " When everything else in the land of Cecrops shall be 
taken, Zeus grants to Athena that the wooden walls alone shall 
remain unconquered, to defend you and your children." The 
oracle was believed to be, as was declared, " firm as adamant." 

But there were various opinions as to what was meant by the 
"wooden walls." Some thought the Pythian priestess directed 
the Athenians to seek refuge in the forests on the mountains ; 
but Themistocles (who it is thought may have himself prompted 
the oracle) contended that the ships were plainly indicated. 

The last interpretation was acted upon. All the soldiers of 
Attica were crowded upon the vessels of the fleet at Salamis, The 
aged men, with the women and children, were carried out of the 
country to different places of safety. All the towns of Attica, with 
the capital, were thus abandoned to the conquerors. 

A few days afterwards the Persians entered upon the deserted 
plain, which they rendered more desolate by ravaging the fields 
and burning the empty towns. Athens shared the common fate, 
and her splendid temples sank in flames. Sardis was avenged. 
The joy in distant Susa was unbounded. 

The Naval Battle of Salamis (480 b.c). — Just off the coast 
of Attica, separated from the mainland by a narrow passage of 
water, lies the island of Salamis. Here lay the Greek fleet, await- 
ing the Persian attack. To hasten on the attack before dissensions 
should divide the Greek forces, Themistocles resorted to the fol- 
lowing stratagem. He sent a messenger to Xerxes representing 
that he himself was ready to espouse the Persian cause, and 
advised an immediate attack upon the Athenian fleet, which he 
represented as being in no condition to make any formidable 
resistance. Xerxes was deceived. He ordered an immediate 
attack. From a lofty throne upon the shore he himself over- 
looked the scene and watched the result. The Persian fleet was 
broken to pieces and two hundred of the ships destroyed.^ 

1 The entire Persian fleet numbered about seven hundred and fifty vessels; 
the Grecian, about three hundred and eighty-five ships, mostly triremes. 



BATTLES OF PL ATM A AND MYCALE. 135 

The blow was decisive. Xerxes, fearing that treachery might 
burn or break the Hellespontine bridges, instantly despatched a 
hundred ships to protect them ; and then, leaving Mardonius with 
three hundred thousand men to retrieve the disaster of Salamis, 
and effect, as he promised to do, the conquest of the rest of 
Greece, the monarch set out on his ignominious retreat to Asia.^ 

The Battles of Plataea and Mycale (479 b.c). — The next 5.ear 
the Persian fleet and army thus left behind in Europe were entirely 
destroyed, both on the same day — the army at Plataea, near 
Thebes, by the combined Greek forces under the Spartan Pausa- 
nias ; and the fleet, including the Asiatic land forces, at Mycale, 
on the Ionian coast. 

The battles of Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale were the successive 
blows that shattered into fragments the most splendid armaments 
ever commanded by Asiatic despot. 

Memorials and Trophies of the War. — The glorious issue of 
the war caused a general burst of joy and exultation throughout 
all Greece. Poets, artists, and orators, ah vied with one another 
in commemorating the deeds of the heroes whose valor had warded 
off the impending danger. 

Nor did the pious Grecians think that the marvellous deliver- 
ance had been effected without the intervention of the gods in 
their behalf. To the temple at Delphi was gratefully consecrated 
a tenth of the immense spoils in gold and silver from the field of 
Plataea ; and within the sanctuary of Athena, upon the Acropohs 
at Athens, were placed the broken cables of the Hellespontine 
bridges, at once a proud trophy of victory, and a signal illustration 
of the divine punishment that had befaflen the audacious and im- 
pious attempt to lay a yoke upon the sacred waters of the Helles- 
pont. 

1 On the very day of the battle of Salamis, Gelon of Syracuse gained a 
great victory over the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera, in the north of 
Sicily. So it was a memorable day for Hellas in the West as well as in the 
East. 



136 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 

(479-431 B.C.) 

Rebuilding the Walls of Athens. — After the Persians had been 
expelled from Greece, the first care of the Athenians was the 
rebuilding of their homes. Their next task was the restoration of 
the city walls. The exalted hopes for the future which had been 
raised by the almost incredible achievements of the past few months, 
led the Athenians to draw a vast circuit of seven miles about the 
Acropolis as the line of the new ramparts. 

The rival states of the Peloponnesus watched the proceedings 
of the Athenians with the most jealous interest. While they could 
not but admire Athens, they feared her. Sparta sent an embassy 
to dissuade the citizens from rebuilding the walls, hypocritically 
assigning as the cause of her interest in the matter her solicitude 
lest, in case of another Persian invasion, the city, if captured, 
might become a shelter and defence to the enemy. But the 
Athenians persisted in their purpose, and in a marvellously short 
time had raised the wall to such a height that they could defy 
interference. 

Themistocles' Naval Policy. — Themistocles saw clearly that 
the supremacy of Athens among the Grecian states must be secured 
and maintained by her mastery of the sea. He had unbounded 
visions of the maritime power and glory that might come to her 
through her fleet, those " wooden walls " to which at this moment 
she owed her very existence ; and he succeeded in inspiring his 
countrymen with his own enthusiasm and sanguine hopes. 

In the prosecution of his views, Themistocles persuaded the 
Athenians to enlarge the harbor of Piraeus, the most spacious of 



OSTRACISM OF THEMISTOCLES. 137 

the ports of Athens, and to surround the place with immense walls, 
far exceeding, both in compass and strength, those of the capital. 
He also led his countrymen to the resolution of adding each year 
twenty well-equipped triremes to their navy. 

This pohcy, initiated by Themistocles, was, as we shall see, zeal- 
ously pursued by the statesmen that after him successively assumed 
the lead in Athenian affairs. /' 

His Ostracism. — Themistocles well deserved the honor of being 
called, as he was, the founder of the New Athens. But, although 
an able statesman, he was an unscrupulous man. He accepted 
bribes and sold his influence, thereby acquiring an enormous prop- 
erty. Finally he was ostracized (471 e.g.). After long wanderings, 
he became a resident at the court of the Persian king. 

Tradition affirms that Artaxerxes, in accordance with Persian 
usage, provided for the courtier exile by assigning to three cities 
in Asia Minor the care of providing for his table : one furnished 
bread, a second meat, and a third wines. It is told that one day, 
as he sat down to his richly loaded board, he exclaimed, *' How 
much we should have lost, my children, if we had not been ruined ! " 

The Confederacy of Delos (477 e.g.). — In order that they 
might be able to carry on the war more effectively against the Per- 
sians, the Ionian states of Asia Minor, the islands of the ^gean, 
and some of the states in Greece proper, shortly after the battle 
of Plataea, formed themselves into what is known as the Confed- 
eracy of Delos. Sparta, on account of her military reputation, 
had hitherto been accorded the place of pre-eminence and author- 
ity in all such alliances of the Hellenic cities. She had come, 
indeed, to regard herself as the natural guardian and leader of 
Greece. But at this time the unbearable arrogance of the Spartan 
general Pausanias, who presumed upon the great reputation he had 
gained at the battle of Plataea, led the states which had entered 
into the alliance to look to Athens to assume the position of leader- 
ship in the new confederacy. 

The lofty character of Aristides, who was now the most promi- 
nent Athenian leader, and his great reputation for fairness and in- 



138 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 

corruptible integrity, also contributed to the same result. He was 
chosen the first president of the league (477 B.C.), and the sacred 
island of Delos was made the repository of the common funds. 
What proportion of the ships and money needed for carrying out 
"Sos. purposes of the union should be contributed by the different 
states, was left entirely to the decision of Aristides, such was the 
confidence all had in his equity ; and so long as he had control of 
the matter, none of the members of the alliance ever had cause of 
complaint. 

Thus did Sparta lose, and Athens gain, the place of precedence 
among the Ionian states. The Dorian states of the Peloponnesus, 
in the main, still looked to Sparta as their leader and adviser. All 
Greece was thus divided into two great leagues, under the rival 
leadership of Sparta and Athens. 

The Athenians convert the Delian League into an Empire. — 
The Confederacy of Delos laid the basis of the imperial power of 
Athens. The Athenians misused their authority as leaders of the 
league, and gradually, during the interval between the formation 
of the union and the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, reduced 
their allies, or confederates, to the condition of tributaries and 
subjects. 

Athens transformed the league into an empire in the following 
manner. The contributions assessed by Aristides upon the differ- 
ent members of the confederation consisted of ships and their 
crews for the larger states, and of money payments for the smaller 
ones. From the first, Athens attended to this assessment matter, 
and saw to it that each member of the league made its proper 
contribution. After a while, some of the cities preferring to make 
a money payment in lieu of ships, Athens accepted the commuta- 
tion, and then building the ships herself, added them to her own 
navy. Thus the confederates disarmed themselves and armed 
their master. 

Very soon the restraints which Athens imposed upon her aUies 
became irksome, and they began to refuse, one after another, to 
pay the assessment in any form. Naxos, one of the Cyclades, 



THE LEADERSHIP OF CIMON. 139 

was the first island to secede, as it were, from the league (466 
B.C.). But Athens had no idea of admitting any such doctrine of 
state rights, and with her powerful navy forced the Naxians to 
remain within the union, and to pay an increased tribute. 

What happened in the case of Naxos happened in the case of 
almost all the other members of the confederation. By the year 
449 B.C. only three of the island members of the league still 
retained their independence. 

Even before this date (probably about 457 B.C.) the Athenians 
had transferred the common treasury from Delos to Athens, and 
diverting the tribute from its original purpose, were beginning to 
spend it, not in the prosecution of war against the Barbarians, but 
in the execution of home enterprises, as though the treasure were 
their own revenue. 

Thus what had been simply a voluntary confederation of sov- 
ereign and independent cities, was converted into what was prac- 
tically an absolute monarchy, with the Attic democracy as the 
imperial master. 

What made this servitude of the former allies of Athens all the 
more galling was the fact that they themselves had been com- 
pelled to forge the very chains which fettered them ; for it was 
their money that had built and was maintaining the fleet by which 
they were kept in subjection and forced to do whatever might be 
the will of the Athenians. 

The Leadership of Cimon ; his Ostracism. — One of the ablest 
and most popular of the generals who commanded the forces of 
the Athenians during this same period when they were enslaving 
their confederates, was Cimon, the son of Miltiades. He was one 
of those whose spirits had been fired by the exciting events attend- 
ant upon the Persian invasion. He had acquired a certain repu- 
tation, at the time of the abandonment of Athens, by being the 
first to hang up his bridle in the sanctuary of the Acropolis, thus 
expressing his resolution to place all his confidence in the fleet, as 
Themistocles advised. 

The popularity of Cimon at last declined, and he suffered ostra- 



140 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 

cism, as had Aristides and Themistocles before him. His loss of 
public favor came about in this manner. In the year 464 B.C., a 
terrible earthquake destroyed a large portion of Sparta. In the 
panic of the appalling disaster the Spartans were led to beheve 
that the evil had befallen them as a punishment for their recent 
violation of the Temple of Poseidon, from which some Helots who 
had fled to the sanctuary for refuge had been torn. The Helots, 
on their part, were quick to interpret the event as an intervention 
of the gods in their behalf, and as an unmistakable signal for their 
uprising. Everywhere they flew to arms, and, being joined by 
some of the Perioeci, furiously attacked their masters. The Spar- 
tans, after maintaining the bitter struggle for several years, finding 
themselves unable to reduce their former slaves to submission, 
were forced to ask aid of the other Grecian states. 

The great Athenian statesman Pericles implored his countrymen 
not to lend themselves to the building tip of the power of their 
rival. But the aristocratic Cimon, who had always entertained the 
most friendly feelings for the Spartans, exhorted the Athenians to 
put aside all sentiments of enmity or jealousy, and to extend succor 
to their kinsmen. "Let not Greece," said he, "be lamed, and 
thus Athens herself be deprived of her yokefellow." The assem- 
bly voted as he advised, and so the Athenian forces fought for 
some time side by side with the Lacedaemonians. 

But the Spartans were distrustful of their Athenian allies, and 
fearing they might pass over to the side of the Helots, they dis- 
missed them. The discourtesy of the act aroused the most bitter 
resentment at Athens. The party of Pericles took advantage of 
the exasperated feelings of the people to effect some important 
changes in the constitution in favor of the people, which made it 
almost purely democratical in character, and to secure the exercise 
of the ostracism against Cimon as the leader of the aristocratical 
party and the friend of Sparta (459 B.C.). 



GENERAL FEATURES OP THE AGE. 



141 



The Age of Pericles (459-431 b.c). 

General Features of the Age. — Under the inspiration of Per- 
icles, the Athenian state now entered upon the most briUiant 
period of its history. The epoch embraces less than the lifetime 
of a single generation, yet its influence upon the civilization of 
the world can hardly be overrated. During this short period 
Athens gave birth to more great men — poets, artists, statesmen, 
and philosophers — than all the world 
besides has produced in any period of 
equal length. 

Among all the. great men of this age, 
Pericles stood pre-eminent. Such was 
the impression he left upon the period in 
which he lived, that it is called after 
him the Periclean Age. Yet Pericles' au- 
thority was simply that which talent and 
character justly confer. He ruled, as 
Plutarch says, by the art of persuasion. 

During the Periclean period the 
Athenian democracy was supreme. 
Every matter that concerned the em- 
pire was discussed and decided by the 
popular assembly. Never before had 
any people enjoyed such perfect pohti- 
cal liberty as did the citizens of Athens 
at this time, and never before were any people, through so inti- 
mate a knowledge of pubhc affairs, so well able to direct the 
policies of state. Every citizen, it is affirmed, was qualified to 
hold civil office. 

Pericles fosters the Naval Power of Athens. — Cimon's pol- 
icy had been to keep the Grecian cities united in order that they 
might offer effectual resistance to the Persian power. The aim of 
his rival Pericles was to maintain Athens as the leading state in 
Hellas, and to oppose the pretensions of Sparta. Accordingly he 




PERICLES. 



142 



PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 



encouraged the Athenians to strengthen their naval armament and 
to perfect themselves in naval discipline, for with Themistocles he 
was convinced that the supremacy of Athens must depend chiefly 
upon her fleet. 

As a part of his maritime policy, Pericles persuaded the Athe- 
nians to build what were known as the Long Walls, — great ram- 
parts between four and five miles in length, — which united Athens 
to the ports of Piraeus and Phalerum. Later, as a double security, 



MtLycfiibettus 



^> 




ATHENS AND THE LONG WALLS. 



a third wall was built parallel to the one running to the former 
harbor. By means of these walls Athens and her ports, with the 
intervening land, were converted into a vast fortified district, 
capable in time of war of holding the entire population of Attica. 
With her communication with the sea thus secured, and with a 
powerful navy at her command, Athens could bid defiance to her 
foes on sea and land. 

Events leading up to the Thirty Years' Truce. — At the same 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 143 

time that Pericles was making the maritime supremacy of Athens 
more secure, he was endeavoring to build up for her a land empire 
in Central Greece. As her influence in this quarter increased, 
Sparta became more and more jealous, and strove to counteract it, 
chiefly by enhancing the power of Thebes. 

The contest between the two rivals was long and bitter. It was 
ended by the well-known Peace of Pericles, or the Thirty Years' 
Truce (445 b.c). By the terms of this treaty each of the rival 
cities was left at the head of the confederation it had formed, but 
neither was to interfere with the subjects or allies of the other, 
while those cities of Hellas which were not yet members of either 
league were to be left free to join either according to choice. 

The real meaning of the Truce was that Athens gave up her 
ambition to establish a land empire, and was henceforth to be con- 
tent with supremacy on the seas. It meant further that Greece 
was to remain a house divided against itself; that democratic 
Athens must share with aristocratic Sparta the hegemony, or lead- 
ership, of the Hellenic cities. 

Pericles adorns Athens with Public Buildings. — Notwith- 
standing Pericles had failed to build up for Athens a land domin- 
ion, he had nevertheless succeeded in securing for her a place of 
proud pre-eminence in maritime Plellas. Athens having achieved 
such a position as she now held, it was the idea of Pericles that 
the Athenians should so adorn their city that it should be a fitting 
symbol of the power and glory of their empire. Nor was it diffi- 
cult for him to persuade his art-loving countrymen to embellish 
their city with those masterpieces of genius that in their ruins still 
excite the admiration of the world. 

Upon the commanding site of the Acropolis was erected the un- 
rivalled Parthenon. Various other edifices, rich with sculptures, 
were also erected there and in difl'erent parts of Athens, until the 
whole city took on a surprisingly brilliant and magnificent appear- 
ance. The whole world looked up to the Attic city with the same 
surprised wonder with which a century before it had regarded the 



144 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 

city of Babylon as adorned by the power and wealth of the great 
N ebuchadnezzar . 

The Athenians secured the vast sums of money needed for the 
prosecution of their great architectural works, out of the treasury 
of the Delian confederacy. The alhes naturally declaimed bitterly 
against this proceeding, complaining that Athens, with their money, 
was " gilding itself as a proud and vain woman decks herself out 
with jewels." But the answer of Pericles to them was, that the 
money was contributed to the end that the cities of the league 
should be protected from the Persians, and that so long as the 
Athenians kept the enemy at a distance they had a right to use 
the money as they pleased. 

The Citizens are taken into the Pay of the State. — It was a 
fixed idea of Pericles that in a democracy there should be not 
only an equal distribution of political rights among all classes, but 
also an equahzation of the means and opportunities of exercising 
these rights, as well as an equal participation by all in social and 
intellectual enjoyments. 

In promoting his views Pericles carried to great length the sys- 
tem of payment for the most common public services. Thus, he 
introduced the custom of mihtary pay ; hitherto the Athenian sol- 
dier had served his country in the field as a matter of honor and 
duty. He also secured the payment of the citizen for serving as 
a juryman, as well as for his attendance upon the meetings of the 
popular assembly. Through his influence, also, salaries were at- 
tached to the various civil offices, the most of which had hitherto 
been unpaid positions. 

These various measures enabled the poorer citizens to enjoy, 
without an inconvenient sacrifice, their franchise in the popular 
assembly, and to offer themselves for the different magistracies, 
which up to this time had been practically open only to men of 
means and leisure. 

Furthermore, Pericles introduced or extended the practice of 
supplying all the citizens with free tickets to the theatre and other 



ATHENIAN RESOURCES. 145 

places of amusement, and of banqueting the people on festival 
days at the pubhc expense. 

Strength and Weakness of the Athenian Empire. — Under 
Pericles x\thens had become the most powerful naval state in the 
world. In one of his last speeches, made at the outbreak of the 
Peloponnesian War, in which he recounts the resources of the 
Athenian empire, Pericles says to his fellow-citizens : " There is 
not now a king, there is not any nation in the universal world, 
able to withstand that navy which at this juncture you can launch 
out to sea." 

But the most significant feature of this new imperial power was 
the combination of these vast material resources with the most 
imposing display of intellectual resources that the world had ever 
witnessed. Never before had there been such a union of the ma- 
terial and intellectual elements of civilization at the seat of empire. 
Literature and art had been carried to the utmost perfection pos- 
sible to human genius. Art was represented by the inimitable 
creations of Phidias and Polygnotus. The drama was illustrated 
by the incomparable tragedies of ^schylus, Sophocles, and Eurip- 
ides, and by the comedies of Aristophanes, while the writing of 
the world's annals had become an art in the graceful narrations of 
Herodotus. 

But there were elements of weakness in the splendid imperial 
structure. The subject cities of the empire were the slaves of 
Athens. To her they paid tribute. To her courts they were 
dragged for trial. Naturally they regarded x\thens as the de- 
stroyer of Hellenic liberties, and watched impatiently for the first 
favorable moment to revolt, and throw off the hateful yoke that 
she had imposed upon them. Hence the Athenian empire rested 
upon a foundation of sand. 

Had Athens, instead of enslaving her confederates of the Delian 
league, only been able to find out some way of retaining them as 
allies in an equal union, — a great and perhaps impossible task in 
that age of the world, — as head of the federated Greek race, she 
might have secured for Hellas the sovereignty of the Mediter- 



146 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 

ranean, and the history of Rome might have ended with the first 
century of the Repubhc. 

Furthermore, in his system of payment for the most common 
pubhc services, and of wholesale public gratuities, Pericles had 
introduced or encouraged practices that had the same demora- 
lizing effects upon the Athenians that the free distribution of grain 
at Rome had upon the Roman populace. These pernicious cus- 
toms cast discredit upon labor, destroyed frugality, and fostered 
idleness, thus sapping the virtues and strength of the Athenian 
democracy. 

Illustrations of these weaknesses, as well as of the strength of 
the Athenian empire, will be afforded by the great struggle between 
Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War, the causes 
and chief incidents of which we shall next rehearse. 




GREECE 

in the 

Fifth Century B.C. 

Zacedcemonian Possessions & Allies I i 
Athenian JPossessions & Allies i I 



'^ 




23 



Perxnthus 



atiyiiduriut 

Byzantium 



Lindus 



J o Gortijna j 




fChalcedon 



■ATTHEWS, NORTHflUP it CO,, ART-ffllNiINu WUKKS, oUffAUO, N. T, 



CAUSES OF THE WAR. 147 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PELUPONNESIAN WAR: THE SPARTAN AND THE 
THEBAN SUPREMACY. 

I. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.c). 

Causes of the War. — During the closing years of the' hfe of 
Pericles, the growing jealousy between x\thens and Sparta broke 
out in the long struggle known as the - Peloponnesian War. Peri- 
cles had foreseen the corning storm : " I descry war," said he, 
" lowering from the Peloponnesus." His whole later policy looked 
toward the preparation of Athens for the "irrepressible conflict." 

The immediate causes of the war were, first, the interference of 
Athens, on the side of the Corcyrseans, in a quarrel between them 
and their mother city Corinth ; and secondly, the blockade by the 
Athenians of Potidaea, on the Macedonian coast. This was a 
Corinthian colony, but it was a member of the Delian league, and 
was now being chastised by Athens for attempted secession. Cor- 
inth, as the ever-jealous naval rival of Athens, had endeavored to 
lend aid to her daughter, but had been worsted in . an engagement 
with the Athenians. 

With affairs in this shape, Corinth, seconded by other states that 
had causes of complaint against Athens, appealed to Sparta, as the 
head of the Dorian alliance, for aid and justice. The Spartans, 
after listening to the deputies of both sides, decided that the 
Athenians had been guilty of injustice, and declared for war. The 
resolution of the Spartans was endorsed by the Peloponnesian 
confederation, and apparently approved by the Delphian oracle, 
which, in response to an inquiry of the Spartans as to what would 
be the issue of the proposed undertaking, assured them that " they 
would gain the victory, if they fought with all their might." 



148 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

Comparison of the Resources of Sparta and of Athens. — The 

resources of Hellas were, at the outbreak of the war, very evenly 
divided between the two parties. With Sparta were all the states 
of the Peloponnesus, save Argos and Achaia, while beyond the 
Isthmus the Bceotian League, headed by Thebes, and other states 
were her alhes. Together, these states could raise a land force of 
sixty thousand men, besides a considerable naval armament, Cor- 
inth being especially strong in ships. 

Athens commanded all the resources of the subject cities — 
about three hundred in number, with twice as many smaller towns 
— of her great maritime empire. Her independent allies were 
Chios, Lesbos, Corcyra, and other states. Of course the chief 
strength of Athens lay in her splendid navy. 

The Beginning : Attack upon Platsea by the Thebans. — The 
first act in the long and terrible drama was enacted at night, within 
the walls of Platsea. This city, though in Boeotia, was under the 
protection of Athens, and would have nothing to do with the Boeo- 
tian League. 

Anxious to get possession of this place before the actual outbreak 
of the war which they saw to be inevitable, the Thebans planned 
its surprise and capture. Three hundred Thebans gained access 
to the unguarded city in the dead of night, and marching to the 
public square, summoned the Plataeans to exchange the Athenian 
for a Boeotian alliance. 

The Plataeans were upon the point of acceding to all the demands 
made upon them, when, discovering the small number of the enemy, 
they attacked and overpowered them in the darkness, and took a 
hundred and eighty of them prisoners. These captives they after- 
wards murdered, in violation, as the Thebans always maintained, of 
a sacred promise that their lives should be spared. This wretched 
affair at Plataea precipitated the war (431 B.C.). 

Invasion of Attica : Pestilence at Athens. — A Spartan army 
was soon overrunning Attica, while an Athenian fleet was ravaging 
the coasts of the Peloponnesus. Pericles persuaded the country 
people of Attica to abandon their villas and hamlets and gather 



CRUEL CHARACTER OF THE WAR. 149 

within the defences of the city. He did not deem it prudent to risk 
a battle in the open fields. From the walls of Athens the people 
could see the flames of their burning villages and farmhouses, as 
the enemy ravaged the plains of Attica up to the very gates of the 
city. It required all the persuasion of Pericles to restrain them 
from issuing in a body from behind the ramparts and rushing to 
the defence of their homes. 

The second year the Lacedsemonians again ravaged the fields 
about Athens, and drove the Athenians almost to frenzy with the 
sight of the flame and smoke of such property as had escaped the 
destruction of the previous year. To increase their misery, a pes- 
tilence broke out within the crowded city, and added its horrors to 
the already unbearable calamities of war. No pen could picture 
the despair and gloom that settled over the city. Athens lost, 
probably, one-fourth of her fighting men. Pericles, who had been 
the very soul and life of Athens through these dark days, fell a 
victim to the plague (429 B.C.). In dying, he said he considered 
his greatest praise to be that " he had never caused an Athenian to 
put on mourning." 

After the death of Pericles the leadership of affairs at Athens 
fell into the hands of unprincipled demagogues, of whom Cleon 
was chief. The mob element got control of the poj^ular assembly, 
so that hereafter we shall find many of its actions characterized 
neither by virtue nor wisdom. 

Desperate and Cruel Character of the War. — On both sides 
the war was waged with the utmost vindictiveness and cruelty. 
As a rule, all the men captured by either side were killed. 

In the year 428 B.C. the city of Mytilene, on the island of 
Lesbos, revolted from the Athenians. With the rebellion sup- 
pressed, the fate of the Mytileneans was in the hands of the 
Athenian assembly. Cleon proposed that all the men of the place, 
six thousand in number, should be slain, and the women and 
children sold as slaves. This infamous decree was passed, and 
a galley despatched bearing the sentence for execution to the 
Athenian general at Mytilene. 



150 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

By the next morning, however, the Athenians had repented of 
their hasty and cruel resolution. A second meeting of the assem- 
bly was hurriedly called ; the barbarous vote was repealed ; and a 
swift trireme, bearing the reprieve, set out in anxious haste to 
overtake the former galley, which had twenty-four hours the start. 
The trireme reached the island just in time to prevent the execu- 
tion of the barbarous edict. 

The second resolution of the Athenians, though more discrimi- 
nating than the first decree, was quite severe enough. Over one 
thousand of the nobles of Mytilene were killed, the city was de- 
stroyed, and the larger part of the lands of the island given to 
citizens of Athens. 

Still more unrelenting and cruel were the Spartans. In the 
summer of the same year that the Athenians wreaked such ven- 
geance upon the Mytileneans, the Spartans and their allies cap- 
tured the city of Platsea, put to death all the men, sold the women 
as slaves, and turned the site of the city into pasture-land. 

Events leading up to the Peace of Nicias (421 b.c). — Soon 
after the affair at Mytilene and the destruction of Plataea, an enter- 
prising general of the Athenians, named Demosthenes, seized and 
fortified a point of land (Pylos) on the coast of Messenia. The 
Spartans made every effort to dislodge the enemy. In the course 
of the siege, four hundred Spartans under Brasidas, having landed 
upon a little island (Sphacteria), were so unfortunate as to be cut 
off from the mainland by the sudden arrival of an Athenian fleet. 
About three hundred of them were at last captured and taken as 
prisoners to Athens. 

But affairs now took a different turn ; the Athenians were 
worsted (at the battle of Delium, 424 B.C.), and then much in- 
decisive fighting followed. At last negotiations for peace were 
opened, which, after many embassies to and fro, resulted in what 
is known as the Peace of Nicias, from the prominent Athenian 
general who is supposed to have had most to do in bringing it 
about. The treaty arranged for a truce of fifty years. Each party 
was to give up to the other all prisoners and captured places. 



THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION. 



151 



Alcibiades and the Sicilian Expedition (415-413 b.c). — The 
Peace of Nicias was only a nominal one. Some of the allies of 
the two principal parties to the truce were dissatisfied with it, and 
consequently its terms were not carried out in good faith or tem- 
per on either side. So the war went on. For about seven years, 
however, Athens and Sparta refrained from invading each other's 
territory ; but even during this period each was aiding its allies in 
making war upon the dependents or confederates of the other. 
Finally, hostihties flamed out in 
open and avowed war, and all Hel- 
las was again lit up with the fires of 
the fratricidal strife. 

The most prominent person on 
the Athenian side during this latter 
period of the struggle was Alcibiades, 
a versatile and brilliant man, but a 
reckless and unsafe counsellor. He 
was a pupil of Socrates, but he failed 
to follow the counsels of his teacher. 
His astonishing escapades only 
seemed to attach the people more 
closely to him, for he possessed all 
those personal traits which make 

men popular idols. His influence over the democracy was un- 
limited. He was able to carry through the popular assembly almost 
any measure that it pleased him to advocate. The more prudent of 
the Athenians were filled with apprehension for the future of the 
state under such guidance. The noted misanthrope Timon gave 
expression to this feeling when, after Alcibiades had secured the 
assent of the popular assembly to one of his impolitic measures, 
he said to him : '' Go on, my brave boy, and prosper ; for your 
prosperity will bring on the ruin of all this crowd." And it did, 
as we shall see. 

The most prosperous enterprise of Alcibiades, in the Timonian 
sense, was the inciting the Athenians to undertake an expedition 




ALCIBIADES. 



152 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

against the Dorian city of Syracuse, in Sicily. The scheme that 
Alcibiades was revolving in his mind was a most magnificent one. 
He proposed that the Athenians, after effecting the conquest of 
Sicily, should make that island the base of operations against both 
Africa and Italy. With the Italians and Carthaginians subdued, 
the armaments of the entire Hellenic world outside of the Pelopon- 
nesus, were to be turned against the Spartans, who with one blow 
should be forever crushed, and Athens be left the arbiter of the 
destinies of Hellas. 

Alcibiades succeeded in persuading the Athenians to undertake 
at least the first part of the colossal enterprise. An immense fleet 
was carefully equipped and manned.^ Anxiously did those remain- 
ing behind watch the squadron as it bore away from the port of 
Athens. Could the watchers have foreseen the fate of the splen- 
did armament, their anxiety would have passed into despair. 
" Athens itself was sailing out of the Piraeus, never again to 
return." 

Scarcely had the expedition arrived at Sicily, before Alcibiades, 
who was one of the leading generals in command of the armament, 
was summoned back to Athens to answer a charge of impiety.^ 
Fearing to trust himself in the hands of his enemies at Athens, he 
fled to Sparta, and there, by traitorous counsel, did all in his power 
to ruin the very expedition he had planned. He advised the 
Spartans to send at once their best general to the Syracusans. 
They sent Gylippus, an able commander, whose generalship con- 
tributed largely to the total and irretrievable defeat that the 
Athenians finally suffered. Their fleet and army were both virtu- 
ally annihilated. Seven thousand prisoners were crowded into the 

1 It consisted of one hundred and thirty-four costly triremes, bearing thirty- 
six thousand soldiers and sailors. The commanders were Alcibiades, Nicias, 
and Lamachus. Later, Demosthenes was sent out with a reinforcement con- 
sisting of seventy-three triremes and five thousand soldiers. 

2 Just upon the eve of the departure of the expedition, the numerous stat- 
ues of Hermes scattered throughout the city were grossly mutilated. Alcibi- 
ades was accused of having had a hand in the affair, and furthermore of having 
mimicked the sacred rites of the Elensinian mvsteries. 



THE DECELEAN WAR. 153 

open stone quarries, where hundreds speedily died of exposure and 
starvation. Most of the wretched survivors were sold as slaves. 
The disaster was appalling and complete. The resources of Athens 
were wrecked. 

The Decelean War: The Fall of Athens. —While the Athe- 
nians were before Syracuse, the Spartans, acting upon the advice 
of Alcibiades, had taken possession of and fortified a strong and 
commanding position known as Decelea, in Attica, only twelve 
miles from Athens. This was a thorn in the side of Athens. 
Secure in this stronghold, the Spartans could annoy and keep in 
terror almost all the Attic plain. The occupation by the Spartans 
of this strategic point had such a determining influence upon the 
remainder of the Peloponnesian War, that this latter portion of 
it is known as the Decelean War (413-404 B.C.). 

Taking advantage of the terrible misfortunes of Athens, her 
subject-allies now revolted and fell away from her on every side. 
The Persians, ever ready to aid the Greeks in destroying one 
another, lent a willing ear to the solicitations of the traitor Alci- 
biades, and gave help to the Spartans. 

The Athenians put forth almost superhuman efforts to retrieve 
their fortunes. Had they been united among themselves, perhaps 
their efforts might not have been in vain. But the oligarchical 
party, for the sake of ruining the democracy were wilHng to ruin 
the empire. While the army was absent from Athens, they over- 
turned the government, and established a sort of aristocratical rule 
(411 B.C.), under which affairs were in the hands of a council of 
Four Hundred. 

The Athenian troops, however, who were at Samos, would not 
recognize the new government. They voted themselves to be the 
true Athens, and forgetting and forgiving the past, recalled Alcibi- 
ades, and gave him command of the army, thereby well illustrating 
what the poet Aristophanes said respecting the disposition of the 
Athenians towards the spoiled favorite, — " They love, they hate, 
but cannot live without him." 

Alcibiades detached the Persians from the side of the Spartans, 



154 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

and gained some splendid victories for Athens. But he could not 
undo the evil he had done. He had ruined Athens beyond re- 
demption by any human power. Constantly the struggle grew 
more and more hopeless. Alcibiades was defeated, and fearing 
to face the Athenians, who had deposed him from his command, 
sought safety in flight. 

Finally, at ^gospotami, on the Hellespont, the Athenian fleet 
was surprised and captured by the Spartans under Lysander (405 
EX.). The prisoners, three thousand in number, were massacred, 
and the usual rites of burial denied their bodies. 

The battle of ^Egospotami sealed the fate of Athens. " That 
night," writes the historian Xenophon, referring to the night upon 
which the news of the woful disaster reached Athens, " That night 
no man slept." 

The towns on the Thracian and Macedonian coasts, and the 
islands of the ^gean belonging to the Athenian Empire, now fell 
into the hands of the Peloponnesians. Athens was besieged by 
sea and land, and soon forced to surrender. Some of the allies 
insisted upon the total destruction of the city, and the conversion 
of its site into pasture-land. The Spartans, however, with appar- 
ent magnanimity, declared that they would never consent thus " to 
put out one of the eyes of Greece." 

The real motive, doubtless, of the Spartans in sparing the city 
was their fear lest, with Athens blotted out, Thebes or Corinth 
should become too powerful. So the city itself was spared, but 
the fortifications of Piraeus and the Long Walls were levelled to the 
ground, the work of demolition being begun to the accompani- 
ment of festive music (404 B.C.) . 

Sparta's power was now supreme. She had neither peer nor 
rival among all the Grecian states. Throughout the war she had 
maintained that her only purpose in warring against Athens was 
to regain liberty for the Grecian cities. We shall very soon see 
what sort of liberty it was that they enjoyed under her guardian- 
ship. 

Results of the War. — " Never," says Thucydides, commenting 



SPARTAN SUPREMACY. 155 

Upon the lamentable results of the Peloponnesian War, " Never 
had so many cities been made desolate by victories ; . . . never 
were there so many instances of banishment ; never so many 
scenes of slaughter either in battle or sedition." 

Athens was but the wreck of her former self. She had lost two 
hundred ships and sixty thousand men, including the killed among 
her allies. Things were just the reverse now of what they were at 
the time of the Persian invasion. When, with all Athens in ruins, 
Themistocles at Salamis was taunted by the Spartans with being 
a man without a city, he replied grandly, " Athens is here in her 
ships." But now the real Athens was gone ; only the empty shell 
remained. 

And all the rest of Hellas showed the marks of the cruel war. 
Spots where once had stood large towns were now pasture-land. 
But more lamentable than all else besides, was the effect of the 
war upon the intellectual and moral life of the Greek race. The 
Grecian world had sunk many degrees in morality ; while the vigor 
and productiveness of the intellectual and artistic life of Hellas, 
the centre and home of which had been Athens, were impaired 
beyond recovery. The achievements of the Greek intellect, espe- 
cially in the fields of philosophic thought, in the century following 
the war were, it is true, wonderful ; but these triumphs merely 
show, we may believe, what the Hellenic mind would have done 
for art and general culture, had it been permitted, unchecked, and 
under the favoring and inspiring conditions of liberty and self- 
government, to disclose all that was latent in it. 

2. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy. 

Spartan Supremacy. — For just one generation following the 
Peloponnesian War (404-371 B.C.), Sparta held the leadership of 
the Grecian states. Aristocratical governments, with institutions 
similar to the Spartan, were estabhshed in the different cities of 
the old Athenian Empire. At Athens, the democratical constitu- 
tion of Solon, under which the Athenians had attained their great- 
ness, was abolished, and an oppressive oligarchy established in 



156 SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACY. 

its stead. The Thirty Tyrants, however, who administered this 
government, were, after eight months' infamous rule, driven from 
the city, and the old democratic constitution, somewhat modified, 
was re-established (403 B.C.). 

It was during this period that Socrates, the greatest moralist 
and teacher of antiquity that Europe had produced, was con- 
demned to death, because his teachings were thought contrary 
to the religion of the Athenians. To this era also belongs the 
well-known expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks, 

Expedition of the Ten Thousand (401-400 e.g.). — Cyrus, 
satrap of the Persian province of Asia Minor, thinking that his 
brother Artaxerxes held the throne unjustly, planned to wrest it 
from him. For carrying out this purpose, he raised an army com- 
posed of a hundred thousand Barbarians and about eleven thousand 
Greek mercenaries. 

With this force Cyrus set out from Sardis, in the spring of 401 
B.C. He marched without opposition across Asia Minor and 
Mesopotamia to Babylonia, into the very heart of the Persian 
empire. Here, at Cunaxa, he was confronted by Artaxerxes with 
a force of more than half a million of men. The Barbarian allies 
of Cyrus were scattered at the first onset of the enemy ; but the 
Greeks stood like a rampart of rock. Cyrus, however, was slain ; 
and the other Greek generals, having been persuaded to enter into 
a council, were treacherously murdered by the Persians. 

The Greeks, in a hurried night meeting, chose new generals to 
lead them back to their homes. One of these was Xenophon, the 
popular historian of the expedition. Now commenced one of the 
most memorable retreats in all history. After a most harassing 
march over the hot plains of the Tigris and the icy passes of 
Armenia, the survivors reached the Black Sea, the abode of sister 
Greek colonies. 

Theban Supremacy (371-362 b.c). — Throughout all the period 
of her supremacy, Sparta dealt selfishly and tyrannically with the 
other Grecian states. But at last the fiery resentment kindled by 
her oppressive measures inspired such a determined revolt against 



THE BAN SUPREMACY. 157 

her as brought to an end her assumed supremacy over her sister 
cities. It was a city in Boeotia that led the uprising against Sparta. 
This was Thebes. The ohgarchical government which the Lace- 
daemonians had set up in that capital was overthrown by Pelopidas 
at the head of the so-called Sacred Band, a company of three 
hundred select men who were bound by oath to stand by each 
other to the last. Pelopidas was seconded in all his efforts by 
Epaminondas, one of the ablest generals the Grecian race ever 
produced. Under the masterly guidance and inspiration of these 
patriot leaders, Thebes very soon secured a predominating influence 
in the affairs of Greece. 

It was Epaminondas who, when his enemies sought to disgrace 
^and annoy him by electing him "public scavenger," made, in 
accepting the office, the memorable utterance, '' If the office will 
not reflect honor upon me, I will reflect honor upon it." 

At Leuctra (371 B.C.) the Thebans earned the renown of being 
the most invincible soldiers in the world by completely overthrow- 
ing, with a force of six thousand men, the Spartan army of twice 
that number. This is said to have been the first time that the 
Spartans were ever fairly defeated in open battle. Their forces had 
been* annihilated, as at Thermopylae, — but annihilation is not 
defeat. 

From the victory of Leuctra dates the short but brilliant period 
of Theban supremacy. The year after that battle Epaminondas 
led an army into the Peloponnesus to aid the Arcadians, who had 
risen against Sparta. Laconia was ravaged, and for the first time 
Spartan women saw the smoke of fires kindled by an enemy. 

To strengthen Arcadia's power of resistance to Sparta, Epami- 
nondas perfected a league among the hitherto isolated towns 
and cantons of the district. As the mutual jealousies of the lead- 
ing cities prevented him from making any one of them the capital 
of the confederation, he founded Megalopolis, or the Great City, 
and made it the head of the union. In the pursuit of the same 
poHcy, Epaminondas also restored the independence of Messenia. 

But, moved by jealousy of the rapidly growing power of Thebes, 



1 5 8 SPAR TAN AND THE BAN S U PRE MA C K 

Athens now formed an alliance with her old rival Sparta against 
her. Three times more did Epaminondas lead an army into the 
Peloponnesus. During his third and last expedition he fought 
with the Spartans and Athenians the great battle of Mantinea, in 
Arcadia. On this memorable field, Epaminondas led the Thebans 
once more to victory ; but he himself was slain, and with him fell 
the hopes and power of Thebes (362 B.C.). 

All the states of Greece now lay exhausted, worn out by their 
endless domestic contentions and wars. There was scarcely suffi- 
cient strength left to strike one worthy blow against enslavement 
by the master destined soon to come from the North. 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 159 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY: EMPIRE OF 
ALEXANDER. 

(338-323 B.C.) 

General Statement. — Macedonia lay to the north of Greece 
proper. The ruUng class of the country was probably of Hel- 
lenic race ; at all events the Macedonian kings were allowed to take 
part in the Olympian games — a privilege accorded to none but 
pure Hellenes. Their efforts to spread Greek art and culture 
among their subjects, a race of rough but brave and martial men^ 
unaccustomed to city life, had been so far successful that the 
country had, to a certain degree, become Hellenized. 

So this period of Macedonian supremacy upon which we are 
entering belongs to the history of the political life of the Greek 
race, as well as the eras marked by Athenian, Spartan, or Theban 
leadership. It was Hellenic institutions, customs, and manners, 
Hellenic language and civilization, that the Macedonians, in the 
extended conquests which we are about to narrate, spread over 
the world. ^ It is this which makes the short-lived Macedonian 
empire so important in universal history. 

Philip of Macedon. — Macedonia first rose to importance dur- 
ing the reign of Philip II. (359-336 B.C.), better known as Philip 
of Macedon. He was a man of pre-eminent ability, of wonderful 

1 Of course it was rather the outer forms than the real inner life and spirit 
of the old Greek civilization which were adopted by the non-Hellenic peoples 
of Egypt and Western Asia. Hence the resulting culture is given a special 
name, Hellenism, which, in Professor Jebbs' language, means, — "not ^ being 
Hellenes,' or Greeks, but — 'doing like Hellenes'; and as the adjective an- 
swering to Hellas is Hellenic, so the adjective answering to Hellenism is 
Hellenistic,''^ 



J 60 PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. 

address in diplomacy, and possessed rare genius as an organizer 
and military chieftain. The art of war he had learned in youth as 
a hostage-pupil of Epaminondas of Thebes. He was the origi- 
nator of the " Macedonian phalanx," a body as renowned in the 
military history of Macedonia as is the " legion " in that of Rome. 

With his kingdom settled and consohdated at home, Philip's 
ambition led him to seek the leadership of the Grecian states. 
He sought to gain his purpose rather by artful diplomacy and in- 
trigue than by open force. In the use of these weapons he might 
have been the teacher of the Athenian Themistocles. 

The Second Sacred War (355-346 b.c). — Philip quickly ex- 
tended his power over a large part of Thrace and the Greek cities 
of Chalcidice, Meanwhile he was, in the following way, acquiring 
a commanding position in the affairs of the states of Greece proper. 

The Phocians had put to secular use some of the lands which, 
at the end of the First Sacred War (see p. 108), had been conse- 
crated to the Delphian xApollo. Taken to task and heavily fined 
for this act by the other members of the Delphian Amphictyony, 
the Phocians deliberately robbed the temple, and used the treas- 
ure in the maintenance of a large force of mercenary soldiers. The 
Amphictyons not being able to punish the Phocians for their im- 
piety, were forced to ask help of Phihp, who gladly rendered the 
assistance sought. 

The Phocians were now quickly subdued, their cities were de- 
stroyed, and the inhabitants scattered in villages and forced to 
pay tribute to the Delphian Apollo. The place that the Phocians 
had held in the Delphian Amphictyony was given to Philip, upon 
whom was also bestowed the privilege of presiding at the Pythian 
games. The position he had now secured was just what Philip 
had coveted, in order that he might use it to make himself master 
of all Greece. 

Battle of Chseronea (338 b.c). — Demosthenes at Athens was 
one' of the few who seemed to understand the real designs of 
Philip. His penetration, like that of Pericles, descried a cloud 
lowering over Greece — this time from the North. With all the 



PLAN TO INVADE ASIA. 161 

energy of his wonderful eloquence, he strove to stir up the Athe- 
nians to resist the encroachments of the king of Macedon. He 
hurled against him his famous " Phihppics," speeches so filled with 
fierce denunciation that they have given name to all writings 
characterized by bitter criticism or violent invective. 

At length the Athenians and Thebans, aroused by the oratory 
of Demosthenes and by some fresh encroachments of the Mace- 
donians, united their forces, and met Philip upon the memorable 
field of Chseronea in Boeotia. The Macedonian phalanx swept 
everything before it. The Theban band was annihilated. The 
power and authority of Philip were now extended and acknowl- 
edged throughout Greece {2>Z^ b.c). 

Plan to invade Asia. — While the Greek states were divided 
among themselves, they were united in an undying hatred of the 
Persians. They were at this time meditating an enterprise fraught 
with the greatest importance to the history of the world. This 
was a joint expedition against Persia. The march of the Ten 
Thousand Greeks through the very heart of the dominions of the 
Great King had encouraged this national undertaking, and illus- 
trated the feasibility of the conquest of Asia. At a great council 
of the Grecian cities held at Corinth, Philip was chosen leader of 
this expedition. All Greece was astir with preparation. In the 
midst of all, Philip was assassinated during the festivities attending 
the marriage of his daughter, and his son Alexander succeeded to 
his place and power (336 B.C.). 

Accession of Alexander the Great. — Alexander was only twenty 
years of age when he came to his father's throne. The spirit of 
the man is shown in the complaint of the boy when news of his 
father's victories came to him : " Friends," said he to his play- 
mates, " my father will possess himself of everything and leave 
nothing for us to do." 

For about two years Alexander was busy suppressing revolts 
against his power among the different cities of Hellas, and chastis- 
ing hostile tribes on the northern frontiers of Macedonia. Thebes 
having risen against him, he razed the city to the ground, — spar- 



162 



PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. 



ing, however, the house of the poet Pindar, — and sold thirty thou- 
sand of the inhabitants into slavery. Thus was one of the most 
renowned of the cities of Greece blotted out of existence. 

Alexander crosses the Hellespont (334 b.c). — Alexander was 
now free to carry out his father's scheme in regard to the Asiatic 
expedition. In the spring of 334 B.C., he set out, at the head of 
an army numbering about thirty-five thousand men, for the con- 




THE BATTLE OF ISSUS. (From a Fresco found at Pompeii.) 

quest of the Persian empire. Now commenced one of the most 
remarkable and swiftly executed campaigns recorded in history. 

Crossing the Hellespont, Alexander routed the Persians at the 
important battle of the Granicus, by which victory all Asia Minor 
was laid open to the invader. 

The Battle of Issus (333 b.c). — At the northeast corner of 
the Mediterranean lies the plain of Issus. Here Alexander again 
defeated the Persian army, numbering six hundred thousand men. 



ss 



60 



■lii ' ^'nyi 



6s 



70 



80 



85 




50 



DOMINIONS 
AND DEPENDENCIES OF 

ALEXANDER 

C.B.C.323. 



45 



,* 



'^' 









nda 



O 



Q 



-D 



I A ^ ^ 



pabthia 



"Persepolis 
PERSI 



IS 



^. 



f?^^ 



Ja 



-^- 



A^' 



.^^ 



CARM.ANIA 



4 










jiiirift 



^ 



%¥^orum 



QEI>^^®-^' 



5J 



60 



05 



70 



SIEGE OF TYRE, 163 

The family of Darius, including his mother, wife, and children, fell 
into the hands of Alexander; but the king himself escaped from 
the field, and hastened to his capital, Susa, to raise another army 
to oppose the march of the conqueror. 

Siege of Tyre (332 b.c). — Before penetrating to the heart of 
the empire, Alexander turned to the south, in order to effect the 
subjugation of Phoenicia, that he might command the Phoenician 
fleets and prevent their being used to sever his communication 
with Greece. The island-city of Tyre, after a memorable siege, 
was taken by means of a mole, or causeway, built with incredible 
labor through the sea to the city. Eight thousand of the inhabi- 
tants were slain, and thirty thousand sold into slavery — a terrible 
warning to those cities that should dare to close their gates against 
the Macedonian. 

Alexander in Egypt. — With the cities of Phoenicia and the 
fleets of the Mediterranean subject to his control, Alexander easily 
effected the conquest of Egypt. The Egyptians, indeed, made no 
resistance to the Macedonians, but willingly exchanged masters. 

While in the country, Alexander founded, at one of the mouths 
of the Nile, a city called, after himself, Alexandria. The city 
became the meeting-place of the East and West ; and its import- 
ance through many centuries attests the far-sighted wisdom of its 
founder. 

A less worthy enterprise of the conqueror was his expedition to 
the oasis of Siwah, located in the Libyan desert, where were a cel- 
ebrated temple and oracle of Zeus Ammon. To gratify his own 
vanity, as well as to impress the superstitious barbarians, Alexander 
desired to be declared of celestial descent. The priests of the 
temple, in accordance with the wish of the king, gave out that the 
oracle pronounced Alexander to be the son of Zeus Ammon, and 
the destined ruler of the world. 

The Battle of Arbela (331 b.c). — From Egypt Alexander 
recommenced his march towards the Persian capital. He had 
received offers of peace from Darius, but to these he is said to 
have replied, " There cannot be two suns in the heavens." Push- 



164 PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. 

ing on, he crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris without opposi- 
tion ; but upon the plain of Arbela, not far from ancient Nineveh, 
he found his further advance disputed by Darius with an immense 
army. Again the Macedonian phalanx " cut through the ranks of 
the Persians as a boat cuts through the waves." The fate of 
Darius has been already narrated in our story of the last of the 
Persian kings (see p. 82). 

The battle of Arbela was one of the decisive combats of history. 
It marked the end of the long struggle between the East and the 
West, between Persia and Greece, and prepared the way for the 
spread of Hellenic civilization over all Western Asia. 

Alexander at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. — From the field 
of Arbela Alexander marched south to Babylon, which opened its 
gates to him without opposition. • Susa was next entered by the 
conqueror. Here he seized incredible quantities of gold and 
silver (^57,000,000, it is said), the treasure of the Great King. 

From Susa Alexander's march was next directed to Persepolis, 
where he secured a treasure more than twice as great (^138,000,- 
000) as that found at Susa. Upon Persepolis Alexander wreaked 
vengeance, for all Greece had suffered at the hands of the Per- 
sians. Many of the inhabitants were massacred, and others sold 
into slavery; while the palaces of the Persian kings were given to 
the flames. 

Alexander, having thus overthrown the power of Darius, now 
began to regard himself, not only as his conqueror, but as his suc- 
cessor, and was thus looked upon by the Persians. He assumed 
the pomp and state of an Oriental monarch, and required the most 
obsequious homage from all who approached him. His Greek 
and Macedonian companions, unused to paying such servile adula- 
tion to their king, were much displeased at Alexander's conduct, 
and from this time on to his death, intrigues and conspiracies 
were being constantly formed among them against his power and 
life. 

Conquest of Bactria. — Urged on by an uncontrollable desire 
to possess himself of the most remote countries of which any 



CONQ UES TS IN INDIA . 165 

accounts had ever reached him, Alexander now led his army to 
the north, and, after subduing many tribes that dwelt about the 
Caspian Sea, boldly conducted his soldiers over the snowy passes 
of the Hindu Kush, and descended into the fair provinces of 
Bactria. 

During the years 329-328 B.C. Alexander conquered not only 
Bactria but Sogdiana, a country lying north of the Oxus. Among 
his captives here was a beautiful Bactrian princess, Roxana by 
name, who became his bride. 

Alexander's stay in Sogdiana was saddened by his murder of 
his dearest friend Clitus, who had saved his life at the Granicus. 
Both were flushed with wine when the quarrel arose ; after the 
deed, x'\lexander was overwhelmed with remorse. 

Conquests in India. — With the countries north of the Hindu 
Kush subdued and settled, Alexander recrossed the mountains, 
and led his army down upon the rich and crowded plains of 
India (327 B.C.). Here again he showed himself invincible, and 
received the submission of many of the native princes. . 

The most formidable resistance encountered by the Macedo- 
nians was offered by a strong and wealthy king named Porus. 
Captured at last and brought into the presence of Alexander, his 
proud answer to the conqueror's question as to how he thought he 
ought to be treated was, " Like a king." The impulsive Alexander 
gave him back his kingdom, to be held, however, subject to the 
Macedonian crown. 

Alexander's desire was to extend his conquests to the Ganges, 
but his soldiers began to murmur because of the length and hard- 
ness of their campaigns, and he reluctantly gave up the under- 
taking. To secure the conquests already made, he founded, at 
different points in the valley of the Indus, Greek towns and colo- 
nies. One of these he named Alexandria, after himself; another 
Bucephala, in memory of his favorite steed ; and still another 
Nicaea, for his victories. The modern museum at Lahore contains 
many relics of Greek art, dug up on the site of these Macedonian 
cities and camps. 



166 EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 

Alexander's return route lay through the ancient Gedrosia^ now 
Beluchistan, a region frightful with burning deserts^, amidst which 
his soldiers endured almost incredible privations and sufferings. 
After a trying and calamitous march of over two months, Alexander, 
with the survivors of his army, reached Carmania. Here, to his 
unbounded joy, he was joined by Nearchus, the trusted admiral of 
his fleet, whom he had ordered to explore the sea between the 
Indus and the Euphrates. 

To appropriately celebrate his conquests and discoveries, Alex- 
ander instituted a series of religious festivals, amidst which his 
soldiers forgot the dangers of their numberless battles and the 
hardships of their unparalleled marches, which had put to the test 
every power of human endurance. And well might these veterans 
glory in their achievements. In a few years they had conquered 
half the world, and changed the whole course of history. 

Plans and Death of Alexander. — As the capital of his vast 
empire, which now stretched from the Ionian Sea to the Indus, 
Alexander chose the ancient Babylon, upon the Euphrates. His 
designs were to push his conquests as far to the west as he had 
extended them to the east. Arabia, Carthage, Italy, and Spain 
were to be added to his already vast domains. Indeed, the plans 
of Alexander embraced nothing less than the union and Helleniz- 
ing of the world. Not only were the peoples of Asia and Europe 
to be blended by means of colonies, but even the floras of the 
two continents were to be intermingled by the transplanting of 
fruits and trees from one continent to the other. Common laws 
and customs, a common language and a common religion, were to 
unite the world into one great family. Intermarriages were to 
blend the races. Alexander himself married a daughter of Darius 
III., and also one of Artaxerxes Ochus ; and to ten thousand of 
his soldiers, whom he encouraged to take Asiatic wives, he gave 
magnificent gifts. 

In the midst of his vast projects, Alexander was seized by a 
fever, brought on by his insane excesses, and died at Babylon, 323 
B.C., in the thirty-second year of his age. His soldiers could not 



RESULTS OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS. 167 

let him die without seeing him. The watchers of the palace were 
obliged to open the doors to them, and the veterans of a hundred 
battle-fields filed sorrowfully past the couch of their dying com- 
mander. His body was carried to Alexandria, in Egypt, and there 
enclosed in a golden coffin, and a splendid mausoleum was raised 
over it. His ambition for celestial honors was gratified in his 
death ; for in Egypt and elsewhere temples were dedicated to 
him, and divine worship was paid to his statues. 

We cannot deny to Alexander, in addition to a remarkable 
genius for military affairs, a profound and comprehensive intellect. 
He had fine tastes, and liberally encouraged art, science, and liter- 
ature. The artists of his times had in him a munificent patron ; 
and to his preceptor Aristotle he sent large collections of natural- 
history objects, gathered in his extended expeditions. He had a 
kind and generous nature : he avenged the murder of his enemy 
Darius ; and he repented in bitter tears over the body of his faith- 
ful Clitus. He exposed himself like the commonest soldier, shar- 
ing with his men the hardships of the march and the dangers of 
the battle-field. 

But he was self-seeking, foolishly vain, and madly ambitious of 
military glory. He plunged into shameful excesses, and gave way 
to bursts of passion that transformed a usually mild and generous 
disposition into the fury of a madman. The contradictions of his 
life cannot, perhaps, be better expressed than in the words once 
applied to the gifted Themistocles : " He was greater in genius 
than in character." 

Results of Alexander's Conquests. — The remarkable conquests 
of Alexander had far-reaching consequences. They ended the long 
struggle between Persia and Greece, and spread Hellenic civili- 
zation over Egypt and Western Asia. The distinction between 
Greek and Barbarian was obliterated, and the sympathies of men, 
hitherto so narrow and local, were widened, and thus an important 
preparation was made for the reception of the cosmopolitan creed 
of Christianity. The world was also given a universal language of 



168 



EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 



culture, which was a further preparation for the spread of Christian 
teachings. 

But the evil effects of the conquest were also positive and far- 
reaching. The sudden acquisition by the Greeks of the enormous 
wealth of the Persian empire, and contact with the vices and the 
effeminate luxury of the Oriental nations, had a most demoralizing 
effect upon Hellenic hfe. Greece became corrupt, and she in 
turn corrupted Rome. Thus the civilization of antiquity was 
undermined. 

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF GRECIAN HISTORY TO THE 
DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 



Legendary Age . 

Early History of 
Sparta . . . 



Early History of 
Athens. . . 



Period of Grseco- 
Persian War . 



Period of Athenian 



supremacy 



Events of the Pelo- 
ponnesian War . 



Period of Spartan 
Supremacy 



The Trojan War, legendary date .... 
The Dorians enter the Peloponnesus, about 
Lycurgus gives laws to Sparta . . 
The Messenian Wars 

Rule of the Archons 

Rebellion of Cylon 

Legislation of Solon 

Pisistratus rules 

Expulsion of the Pisistratidce 

First Expedition of Darius (led by Mar- 
donius) 

Battle of Marathon 

Battle of Thermopylre 

Battle of Salamis 

Battles of Plataea and Mycale ..... 

Athens rebuilt 

Aristides chosen first president of the Con- 
federacy of Delos 

Themistocles sent into exile 

Ostracism of Cimon 

Pericles at the head of affairs — Periclean 
Age 

Beginning of the Peloponnesian War . . 

Pestilence at Athens 

Expedition against Syracuse 

Battle of ^gospotami 

Close of the War 

Rule of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens . . 
Expedition of the Ten Thousand .... 

Peace of Antalcidas 

Ohgarchy established at Thebes .... 

Spartan power broken on the field of Leuc- 

tra ........... . 



1194-1184 
1 104 

850 
750-650 

1050-612 
612 

594 
560-527 

510 

492 
490 
480 
480 
479 
478 

477 
471 

459 

459-431 

431 
430 
415 
405 
404 

404-403 
401-400 

387 
3S2 

371 



CIIR ONOL O GICAL S UMMAR Y. 



169 



Period of Theban 
Supremacy 



Period of Macedo- 
nian Supremacy. 



Battle of Leuctra, which secures the suprem- 
acy of Thebes 371 

Battle of Mantinea and death of Epami- 

nondas 362 

Battle of Chseronea 338 

Death of Philip of Macedon 336 

Alexander crosses the Hellespont . , . 334 

Battle of Issus 333 

Battle of Arbela , 331 

Death of Alexander at Babylon .... 323 



170 STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 

Division of the Empire of Alexander. — There was no one 
who could wield the sword that fell from the hand of Alexander. 
It is told that, when dying, being asked to whom the kingdoiii 
should belong, he replied, "To the strongest," and handed his 
signet ring to his general Perdiccas. But Perdiccas was not strong 
enough to master the difficulties of the situation.^ Indeed, who 
is strong enough to rule the world ? 

Consequently the vast empire created by Alexander's unparal- 
leled conquests was distracted by quarrels and wars, and before the 
close of the fourth century B.C., had become broken into many 
fragments. Besides minor states,^ four well-defined and important 
monarchies arose out of the ruins. After the rearrangement of 
boundaries that followed the decisive battle of Ipsus (fought in 
Phrygia 301 B.C.), these principal states had the outlines shown 
by the accompanying map. Their rulers were Lysimachus, Seleu- 
cus Nicator, Ptolemy, and Cassander, who had each assumed the 
title of king. The great horn being broken, in its place came up 
four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.^ 

1 Perdiccas ruled as regent for Philip Arridaeue (an illegitimate brother of 
Alexander), who was proclaimed titular king. 

2 Two of these lesser states, Rhodes and Pontus, deserve special notice : — 
Rhodes. — Rhodes became the head of a maritime confederation of the cities 

and islands along the coasts of Asia Minor, and thus laid the basis of a remarka- 
ble commercial prosperity and naval power. 

Pontus. — Pontus (Greek for sea), a state of Asia Minor,' was so called 
from its position upon the Euxine, It was never thoroughly conquered by the 
Macedonians. It has a place in history mainly because of the lustre shed upon 
it by the transcendent ability of one of its kings, Mithridates the Great (120-63 
B.C.), who for a long time made successful resistance to the Roman arms. 

^ Dan. viii. 8. 




r - -, r— r 



ss 



bo 



6S 



70 



7S 



80 



S5 



SO 



\ \ T 



KINGDOMS 
of the 

SUCCESSORS of ALEXANDER 

C. B. C. 300. 

Dominions of Ptolemy CH 



45 



V 



J 





/■ 

O F 

/ 

Persepoljg 




jftti' 



acd'^' 



\ 



\ 



u 



vtva- 




^p.MANlA' 



(3;EI5R0S1A 



^^ 



^ 



<^^^J 



40 



35 




A 



io 



^ 



■ S5 



A 



55 



60 



OS 



70 



•?, ' " r ■• 



THRACE AND SYRIA. 171 

Lysimachus held Thrace and the western part of Asia Minor ; 
Seleucus Nicator, Syria and the countries eastward to the Indus ; 
Ptolemy ruled Egypt ; and Cassander governed Macedonia, and 
claimed authority over Greece.^ 

After barely mentioning the fate of the kingdom of Lysimachus, 
we will trace very briefly the fortunes of the other three monarch- 
ies until they were overthrown, one after the other, by the now 
rapidly rising power of Rome. 

Thrace, or the Kingdom of Lysimachus. — The kingdom of 
Lysimachus soon disappeared. He was defeated by Seleucus in 
the year 281 B.C., and his dominions were divided. The lands 
in Asia Minor were joined to the Syrian kingdom, while Thrace 
was absorbed by Macedonia. 

Syria, or the Kingdom of the Seleucidse (312-63 b.c). — 
This kingdom, during the two centuries and more of its existence, 
played an important part in the political history of the world. 
Under its first king it comprised nominally almost all the countries 
of Asia conquered by Alexander, thus stretching from the Helles- 
pont to the Indus. Its rulers were called Seleucidae, from the 
founder of the kingdom, Seleucus Nicator. 

Seleucus Nicator (312-280 e.g.), besides being a ruler of 
unusual ability, was a most liberal patron of learning and art. He 
is declared to have been " the greatest founder of cities that ever 
lived." Throughout his dominions he founded a vast number, 
some of which endured for many centuries. Antioch, on the 
Orontes, in Northern Syria, became, after Seleucia on the Tigris, 
the capital of the kingdom, and obtained an influence and renown 
as a centre of population and trade which have given its name a 
sure place in history. 

The successors of Seleucus Nicator led the kingdom through 
checkered fortunes. On different sides provinces fell away and 
became independent states.^ Antiochus III. (223-187 B.C.), called 

1 Cassander never secured complete control of Greece, hence this country 
is not included in his domains as these appear upon the map. 
- The most important of these were the following : — 
I. Pergamus. — This was a state in western Asia Minor, which became 



172 



STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE. 




COIN OF ANTIOCHUS III. (THE GREAT). 



"the Great," raised the kingdom for a short time into great prom- 
inence- ; but attempting to make conquests in Europe, and further, 

giving asylum 
to the Cartha- 
ginian general 
Hannibal, he in- 
curred the fatal 
hostility of 
Rome. Quickly 
driven by the 
Roman legions 
across the Hel- 
lespont, he was hopelessly defeated at the battle of Magnesia (190 
B.C.). After this, the Syrian kingdom was of very little importance 
in the world's affairs. At last, brought again into collision with 
Rome, the country was overrun by Pompey the Great, and be- 
came a part of the Roman Republic, 63 B.C. 

Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt (323- 
30 B.C.). — The Grgeco- Egyptian empire of 
the Ptolem.ies was by far the most impor- 
tant, in its influence upon the civilization of 
the world, of all the kingdoms that owed 
their origin to the conquests of Alexander. 
The founder of the house and dynasty was 
Ptolemy L, surnamed Soter (323-283 b.c), 
one of Alexander's ablest generals. His de- 
scendants ruled in Egypt for nearly three centuries, a most impor- 
tant period in the intellectual life of the world. Under Ptolemy 

independent upon the death of Seleucus Nicator (280 B.C.). Favored by the 
Romans, it gradually grew into a powerful kingdom, which at one time 
embraced a considerable part of Asia Minor. Its capital, also called Perga- 
mus, became a most noted centre of Greek learning and civilization. 

2. Parthia. — Parthia was a powerful Turanian state that grew up east of 
the Euphrates River (from about 255 B.C. to 226 A.D.). Its kings were at first 
formidable enemies of the rulers of Syria, and later of the Romans, whom they 
never allowed to make any considerable conquest beyond the Euphrates. 




PTOLEMY SOTER. 



KINGDOM OF THE PTOLEMIES. 173 

I., Alexandria became the great depot of exchange for the pro- 
ductions of the world. At the entrance of the harbor stood the 
Pharos, or hght-house, — the first structure of its kind, — ■ which 
Ptolemy built to guide the fleets of the world to his capital. This 
edifice was reckoned one of the Seven Wonders. 

But it was not alone the exchange of material products that was 
comprehended in Ptolemy's scheme. His aim was to make his 
capital the intellectual centre of the world — the place where the 
arts, sciences, literatures, and even the religions, of the world should 
meet and mingle. He founded the famous Museum, a sort of col- 
lege, which became the "University of the East," and established 
the renowned Alexandrian Library. Poets, artists, philosophers, 
and teachers in all departments of learning were encouraged to 
settle in Alexandria by the conferring of immunities and privileges, 
and by gifts and munificent patronage. His court embraced the 
learning and genius of the age. 

Ptolemy II., Philadelphus (283-247 B.C.), followed closely in the 
footsteps of his father, carrying out, as far as possible, the plans 
and policies of the preceding reign. Under his successor, Ptol- 
emy HI., Euergetes (247-242 B.C.), the dominions of the Ptolemies 
touched their widest limits ; while the capital Alexandria reached 
the culminating point in her fame as the centre of Hellenistic 
civihzation. 

Altogether the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt almost exactly three 
centuries (323-30 B.C.). Those rulers who held the throne for the 
last two hundred years were, with few exceptions, a succession of 
monsters, such as even Rome in her worst days could scarcely 
equal. The usage of intermarriage among the members of the 
royal family, — a usage in which the Ptolemies followed what was 
a custom of the ancient Pharaohs, — led to endless family quarrels, 
which resulted in fratricide, matricide, and all the dark deeds in- 
cluded in the calendar of royal crime. The story of the renowned 
Cleopatra, the last of the house of the Ptolemies, will be told in 
connection with Roman history, to which it properly belongs. 

Macedonia and Greece. — From the time of the subjection of 



174 



STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE. 



Greece by Philip and Alexander to the absorption of Macedonia 
into the growing dominions of Rome, the Greek cities of the penin- 
sula were very much under the control or influence of the Mace- 
donian kings. But the Greeks were never made for royal subjects, 
and consequently they were in a state of chronic revolt against this 
foreign authority. 

Thus, no sooner had they heard of the death of Alexander than 
several of the Grecian states rose against the Macedonian general 
Antipater, and carried on with him what is known as the Lamian 
War (323-321 B.C.). The struggle ended disastrously for the 
Greeks, and Demosthenes, who had been the soul of the move- 
ment, was forced to flee from Athens. He took refuge upon an 
island just off the coast of the Peloponnesus ; but being still hunted 
by Antipater, he put an end to his own life by means of poison. 




THE DYING GAUL. 



The next matter of moment in the history of Macedonia, was 
an invasion of the Gauls (279 B.C.), kinsmen of the Celtic tribes 
that about a century before this time had sacked the city of Rome. 
These savage marauders inflicted terrible suffering upon both Mace- 
donia and Greece. But they were at last expelled from Europe, 
and setthng in Asia Minor, they there gave name to the province 
of Galatia. The celebrated Greek sculpture, The Dying Gaul, 



CONCLUSION. 175 

popularly but erroneously called The Dying Gladiator, is a most 
interesting memorial of this episode in Greek history. 

Macedonia finally came in contact with a new enemy — the 
great mihtary republic of the West. For lending aid to Carthage 
in the Second Punic War, she incurred the anger of Rome, which 
resulted, after much intrigue and hard fighting, in the country 
being brought into subjection to the Italian power. In the year 
146 B.C. it was erected into a Roman province. 

The political affairs of Greece proper during the period we are 
considering were chiefly comprehended in the fortunes of two con- 
federacies, or leagues, one of which was called the Achaean, and 
the other the yEtolian League. United, these two confederacies 
might have maintained the political independence of Greece ; but 
that spirit of dissension which we have seen to be the bane of the 
Hellenic peoples caused them to become, in the hands of intrigu- 
ing Rome, weapons first for crushing Macedonia, and then for 
grinding each other to pieces. Finally, in the year 146 B.C., the 
splendid city of Corinth was taken by the Roman army and laid 
in ashes. This was the last act in the long and varied drama of 
the political life of ancient Greece. Henceforth it constituted 
simply a portion of the Roman Empire. 

Conclusion. — We have now traced the political fortunes of the 
Hellenic race through about seven centuries of authentic history. 
In succeeding chapters it will be our pleasanter task to trace the 
more brilliant and worthy fortunes of the artistic and intellectual 
life of Hellas, — to portray, though necessarily in scanty outline, the 
achievements of that wonderful genius which enabled her, " cap- 
tured, to lead captive her captor." 



176 



GREEK A R ClIirE C T URE. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING. 

The Greek Sense of Beauty. — The Greeks were artists by 
nature. "Ugliness gave them pain Uke a blow." Everything 
they made was beautiful. Beauty they placed next to holiness ; 
indeed, they almost or quite made beauty and right the same 
thing. They are said to have thought it strange that Socrates was 
good, seeing he was so unprepossessing in appearance. 





PELASGIAN MASONRY. 



I. Architecture. 

Pelasgian Architecture. — The term Pelasgian is apphed to 
various structures of massive masonry found in different parts 
of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor. The origin of these works 
was a mystery to the earliest Hellenes, who ascribed them to 
a race of giants called Cyclops ; hence the name Cyclopean that 
also attaches to them. 

These works exhibit three well-defined stages of development. 



ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE, 



177 



In the earliest and rudest structures the stones are gigantic in size 
and untouched by the chisel ; in the next oldest the stones are 
worked into irregular polygonal blocks ; while in the latest the 
blocks are cut into rectangular shapes and laid in regular courses. 
The walls of the old citadels or castles of several Grecian cities 
exhibit specimens of this primitive architecture (see p. 90). 

Orders of Architecture. — There are three styles, or orders, of 
Grecian architecture — the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. 
They are distinguished from one another chiefly by differences in 
the proportions and ornamentation of the column. 




DORIC CAPITAL. 



IONIC CAPITAL. 



The Doric column is without a base, and has a simple and mas- 
sive capital. At first the Doric temples of the Greeks were almost 
as massive as the Egyptian temples, but later they became more 
refined. 

The Ionic column is characterized by the spiral volutes of the 
capital. This form was borrowed from the Assyrians, and was 
principally employed by the Greeks of Ionia, whence its name. 

The Corinthian order is distinguished by its rich capital, formed 
of acanthus leaves. This type is made up of Egyptian, Assyrian, 
and Grecian elements. The addition of the acanthus leaves is 
said to have been suggested to the artist Callimachus by the pretty 
effect of a basket surrounded by the leaves of an acanthus plant, 
upon which it had accidentally fallen. 

The entire structure was made to harmonize with its supporting 



178 



GREEK ARCHITECTURE. 




CORINTHIAN CAPITAL. 



columns. The general characteristics of the several orders are 
well portrayed by the terms we use when we speak of the "stern" 

Doric, the "graceful" Ionic, 
^and the " ornate " Corinthian. 
Temple of Diana at Ephe- 
sus. — The temple of Diana 
at Ephesus was regarded as 
one of the wonders of the 
world. The original struc- 
ture was commenced about 
the beginning of the sixth 
century B.C., and, according 
to Pliny, was one hundred 
and twenty years in process 
of building. Croesus gave 
liberally of his wealth to or- 
nament the shrine. 

In the year 356 B.C., on the 
same night, it is said, that 
Alexander was born, an ambitious youth, named Herostratus, fired 
the building, simply to immortahze his name. Alexander offered to 
rebuild the temple, provided that he be allowed to inscribe his 
name upon it. The Ephesians gracefully declined the proposal by 
replying that it was not right for one deity to erect a temple to 
another. Alexander was obliged to content himself with placing 
within the shrine his own portrait by Apelles — a piece of work 
which cost ^30,000. The value of the gifts to the temple was 
beyond all calculation : kings and states vied with one another in 
splendid donations. Painters and sculptors were eager to have 
their masterpieces assigned a place within its walls, so that it 
became a great national gallery of paintings and statuary. 

So inviolable was the sanctity of the temple that at all times, 
and especially in times of tumult and danger, property and treas- 
ures were carried to it as a safe repository.^ But the riches of the 

1 The Grecian temples were, in a certain sense, banks of deposit. They 
contained special chambers or vaults for the safe-keeping of valuables. The 



THE DELPHIAN TEMPLE. 179 

sanctuary proved too great a temptation to the Roman emperor 
Nero. He risked incurring the anger of the great Diana, and 
robbed the temple of many statues and a vast amount of gold. 
Later (in 262 a.d.), the barbarian Goths enriched themselves with 
the spoils of the shrine, and left it a ruin. 

The Delphian Temple. — The first temple erected at Delphi 
over the spot whence issued the mysterious vapors (see. p. 105) was 
a rude wooden structure. In the year 548 B.C., the temple then 
standing was destroyed by fire. All the cities and states of Hellas 
contributed to its rebuilding. Even the king of Egypt, Amasis, 
sent a munificent gift. More than half a million of dollars was 
collected ; for the temple was to exceed in magnificence anything 
the world had yet seen. It will be recalled that the Athenian 
Alcmaeonidae were the contractors who undertook the rebuilding 
of the shrine (see p. 122). 

The temple was crowded with the spoils of many battle-fields, 
with the rich gifts of kings, and with rare works of art. Like the 
temple at Ephesus, the Delphian shrine, after remaining for many 
years secure, through the awe and reverence which its oracle 
inspired, suffered frequent spoliation. The greed of conquerors 
overcame all religious scruples. The Phocians robbed the temple 
of a treasure equivalent, it is estimated, to more than $10,000,000 
with us (see p. 160) ; and Nero plundered it of five hundred 
bronze images. But Constantine (emperor of Rome 306-337 a.d., 

heaps of gold and silver relics discovered by Di Cesnola at Sunium, in the 
island of Cyprus, were found in the secret subterranean vaults of a great temple. 
The priests often loaned out on interest the money deposited with them, the 
revenue from this source being added to that from the leased lands of the tem- 
ple and from the tithes of war booty, to meet the expenses of the services of 
the shrine. Usually the temple property in Greece was managed solely by the 
priests; but the treasure of the Parthenon at Athens formed an exception to 
this rule. The treasure here belonged to the state, and was controlled and 
disposed of by the vote of the people. Even the personal property of the god- 
dess, the gold drapery of the statue (see p. 185), which was worth about $600,- 
000, could be used in case of great need, but it must be replaced in due time, 
with a fair interest. 



180 



GREEK ARCHITECTURE. 



and founder of Constantinople) was the Nebuchadnezzar who bore 
off the sacred vessels and many statues as trophies to his new 
capital then rising on the Hellespont. 

The Athenian Acropolis and the Parthenon. — In the history 
of art there is no other spot in the world possessed of such in- 
terest as the flat-topped rock, already described (see p. i88), 
which constituted the Athenian Acropohs. We have seen that in 
early times the eminence was used as a stronghold. But by the 
fifth century B.C. the city had slipped down upon the plain, and 
the summit of the rock was consecrated to the temples and the 
worship of the deities, and came to be called '' the city of the 
gods." During the period of Athenian supremacy, especially in 




ATHENIAN YOUTH IN PROCESSION. (From the Frieze of the Parthenon.) 

the Periclean Age, Hellenic genius and piety adorned this spot 
with temples and statues that all the world has pronounced to be 
faultless specimens of beauty and taste. 

The most celebrated of the buildings upon the Acropolis was 
the Parthenon, the " Residence of the virgin-goddess Athena." 
This is considered the finest specimen of Greek architecture. It 
was designed by the architect Ictinus, but the sculptures that 
adorned it were the work of the celebrated Phidias.^ It was built 



1 The subject of the wonderful frieze running round the temple was the pro- 
cession which formed the most important feature of the Athenian festival 




[81 



182 GREEK ARCHITECTURE. 

in the Doric order, of marble from the neighboring PenteUcus. 
After standing for more than two thousand years, and having served 
successively as a Pagan temple, a Christian church, and a Moham- 
medan mosque, it finally was made to serve as a Turkish powder- 
magazine, in a war with the Venetians, in 1687. During the 
progress of this contest a bomb fired the magazine, and more 
than half of this masterpiece of ancient art was shivered into 
fragments. The front is nearly perfect, and is the most prominent 
feature of the Acropohs at the present time. 

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. — This structure was another 
of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was a monumental tomb 
designed to preserve the memory of Mausolus, king of Caria, who 
died 353 B.C. Its erection was prompted by the love and grief of 
his wife Artemisia. The combined genius of the most noted artists 
of the age executed the wish of the queen. It is the traditions of 
this beautiful structure that have given the world a name for all 
magnificent monuments raised to perpetuate the memory of the 
dead. 

Theatres. — The most noted of Greek theatres was the Theatre 
of Dionysus at Athens, which was the model of all the others. It 
was semi-circular in form, and was partly cut in the rock on the 
southeastern slope of the Acropolis, the Greeks in the construction 
of their theatres generally taking advantage of a hillside. There 
were about one hundred rows of seats, the lowest one, bordering 
the orchestra, consisting of sixty-seven marble arm-chairs. The 
structure would hold thirty thousand spectators. 

2. Sculpture and Painting. 

Progress in Sculpture: Influence of the Gymnastic Art. — 

Wood was the material first employed by the Greek artists. About 

known as the Great Panathensea, which was celebrated every four years in 
honor of the patron-goddess of Athens. The larger part of the frieze is now 
in the British Museum, the Parthenon having been despoiled of its coronal of 
sculptures by Lord Elgin. Read Lord Byron's The Curse of Minerva. To 
the poet, Lord Elgin's act appeared worse than vandalism. 




(5 



184 



SCULPTURE AND- PAINTING. 



the eighth century B.C. bronze and marble were generally substi- 
tuted for the less durable material. With this change sculpture 
began to make rapid progress. 

But what exerted the most 
positive influence upon Greek 
sculpture was the gymnastic art. 
The exercises of the gymnasium 
and the contests of the sacred 
games afforded the artist unri- 
valled opportunities for the study 
of the human form. '' The whole 
race," as Symonds says, "lived 
out its sculpture and its painting, 
rehearsed, as it were, the great 
works of Phidias and Polygnotus, 
in physical exercises, before it 
learned to express itself in marble 
or in color." 

As the sacred buildings in- 
creased in number and costliness, 
the services of the artist were 
called into requisition for their 
adornment. At first the temple 
held only the statue of the god ; 
but after a time it became, as we have already seen, a sort of na- 
tional museum. The entablature, the pediments, and every niche 
of the interior of the shrine, as well as the surrounding grounds 
and groves, were peopled with statues and groups of figures, ex- 
ecuted by the most renowned artists, and representing the national 
deities, the legendary heroes, victors at the public games, or inci- 
dents in the life of the state in which piety saw the special inter- 
position of the god in whose honor the shrine had been reared. 

Phidias. — Among all the great sculptors of antiquity, Phidias 
stands pre-eminent. He was an Athenian, and was born about 
488 B.C. He delighted in the beautiful myths and legends of the 




PITCHING THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT 
(Discobolus.) 



PHIDIAS. 



185 



Heroic Age, and from these he drew 
subjects for his art. It was his 
genius that created the wonderful 
figures of the pediments and the 
frieze of the Parthenon. 

The most celebrated of his colos- 
sal sculptures were the statue of 
Athena within the Parthenon, and 
that of Olympian Zeus in the temple 
at Olympia. The statue of Athena 
was of gigantic size, being about 
forty feet in height, and was con- 
structed of ivory and gold, the hair, 
weapons, and drapery being of the 
latter material. 

The statue of Olympian Zeus was 
also of ivory and gold. It was sixty 
feet high, and represented the god 
seated on his throne. The hair, 
beard, and drapery were of gold. 
The eyes were brilliant stones. 
Gems of great value decked the 
throne, and figures of exquisite 
design were sculptured on the gold- 
en robe. The colossal proportions 
of this wonderful work, as well as 
the lofty yet benign aspect of the 
countenance, harmonized well with 

the popular conception of the maj- ^^'' ^ statue found at Athens in 1880 which 

^ ^ i -' IS supposed to be a copy of the colossal 

esty and grace of the " father of statue of Athena by Phidias, de- 

T T ^,^ -r 11 scribed in the text. 

gods and men. It was thought a 

great misfortune to die without having seen the Olympian Zeus.^ 

^ Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the representation which 
Homer gives in the first book of the Iliad \n the passage thus translated by 
Pope : — 




ATHENA PARTHENOS. 



186 



SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. 




The statue was in existence for eight hundred years, being finally 
destroyed by fire in the fifth century a.d. 

Phidias also executed other works 
in both bronze and marble. He 
met an unworthy fate. Upon the 
famous shield at the feet of the 
statue of Athena in the Parthenon, 
among the figures in the represen- 
tation of a battle between the Athe- 
nians and the Amazons, Phidias 
introduced a portrait of himself 
and also one of his patron Pericles. 
The enemies of the artist caused 
HEAD OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS BY him to be prosccutcd for this, which 
PHIDIAS. was considered an act of sacrilege. 

He died in prison (432 B.C.). 
Polycletus. — At the same time that Phidias was executing his 
ideal representations of the gods, Polycletus the elder, whose home 
was at Argos, was producing his renowned bronze statues of ath- 
letes. Among his pieces was one representing a spear-bearer, 
which was so perfect as to be known as "the Rule." 

Praxiteles. — This artist, after Polycletus, stands next to Phid- 
ias as one of the most eminent of Greek sculptors. His works 
were executed during the fourth century b.c. Among his chief 
pieces may be mentioned the " Cnidian Aphrodite." This stood 
in the Temple of Aphrodite at Cnidus, and was regarded by the 
ancients as the most perfect embodiment of the goddess of beauty. 
Pilgrimages were made from distant countries to Cnidus for the 
sake of looking upon the matchless statue. 

Lysippus. — This artist is renowned for his works in bronze. 



' He spake, and awful bends his sable brow, 
Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, 
The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god. 
High heaven with reverence the dread signal took, 
And all Olympus to the centre shook." 

Bulfinch's Age of Fable. 



THE RHODIAN COLOSSUS. 187 

s 

He flourished about the middle of the fourth century B.C. His 
statues were in great demand. Many of these were of colossal 
size. Alexander gave the artist many orders for statues of him- 
self, and also of the heroes that fell in his campaigns. 




THE LAOCOON GROUP. 



The Rhodian Colossus and Schools of Art. — The most noted 
pupil of Lysippus was Chares, who gave to the world the cele- 
brated Colossus at Rhodes (about 280 b.c). This was another of 
the wonders of the world. Its height was about one hundred and 



188 ' SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. 

fifty feet, and a man could barely encircle with his arms the thmnb 
of the statue.^ After standing little more than half a century, it 
was overthrown by an earthquake. For nine hundred years the 
Colossus then lay, like a Homeric god, prone upon the ground. 
Finally, the Arabs, having overrun this part of the Orient (a.d. 
672), appropriated the statue, and thriftily sold it to a Jewish mer- 
chant. It is said that it required a train of nine hundred camels 
to bear away the bronze. 

This gigantic piece of statuary was not a solitary one at Rhodes ; 
for that city, next after Athens, was the great art centre of the 
Grecian world. Its streets and gardens and pubhc edifices were 
literally crowded with statues. The island became the favorite 
resort of artists, and the various schools there founded acquired a 
wide renown. Many of the most prized works of Grecian art in 
our modern museums were executed by members of these Rhodian 
schools. The " Laocoon Group," found at Rome in 1506, and 
now in the Museum of the Vatican, is generally thought to be the 
work of three Rhodian sculptors. 

Greek Painting. — Although the Greek artists attained a high 
degree of excellence in painting, still they probably never brought 
the art to the perfection which they reached in sculpture. One 
reason for this was that paintings were never, like statues, objects 
of adoration ; hence less attention was directed to them. 

With the exception of antique vases and a few patches of mural 
decoration, all specimens of Greek painting have perished. Con- 
sequently our knowledge of Greek painting is derived chiefly from 
the descriptions of renowned works, by the ancient writers, and 
their anecdotes of great painters. 

Polygnotus. — Polygnotus (flourished 475-455 B.C.) has been 
cafled the Prometheus of painting, because he was the first to give 
fire and animation to the expression of the countenance. " In his 
hand," it is affirmed, " the human features became for the first 

1 The statue was about the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York har- 
bor. The height of the latter is 151 feet. , 



ZEUXIS AND PARRHASIUS. 1S9 

time the mirror of the soul." Of a Polyxena^ painted by this 
great master, it was said that " she carried in her eyehds the 
whole history of the Trojan War." 

Zeuxis and Parrhasius. — These great artists lived and painted 
about 400 B.C. A favorite and familiar story preserves their names 
as companions, and commemorates their rival genius. Zeuxis, 
such is the story, painted a cluster of grapes which so closely imi- 
tated the real fruit that the birds pecked at them. His rival, for 
his piece, painted a curtain. Zeuxis asked Parrhasius to draw 
aside the veil and exhibit his picture. " I confess I am surpassed," 
generously admitted Zeuxis to his rival ; ^' I deceived birds, but 
you have deceived the eyes of an experienced artist." 

Apelles. — Apelles, who has been called the " Raphael of an- 
tiquity," was the court-painter of Alexander the Great. He was 
such a consummate master of the art of painting, and carried it to 
such a state of perfection, that the ancient writers spoke of it as 
the "art of Apelles." 

That Apelles, like Zeuxis and Parrhasius, painted life-like pictures 
is shown by the following story. In a contest between him and 
some rival artists, horses were the objects represented. Perceiving 
that the judges were unfriendly to him, and partial, Apelles insisted 
that less prejudiced judges should pronounce upon the merit of 
the respective pieces, demanding, at the same time, that the paint- 
ings should be shown to some horses that were near. When 
brought before the pictures of his rival, the horses exhibited no 
concern ; but upon being shown the painting of Apelles, they 
manifested by neighing and other intelligent signs their instant 
recognition of the companions the great master had created. 

1 Polyxena was a daughter of the Trojan Priam, famous for her beauty and 
her sufiferings. 



190 GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GREEK LITERATURE. 
I. Epic and Lyric Poetry. 

The Greeks as Literary Artists. — It was that same exquisite 
sense of fitness and proportion and beauty which made the Greeks 
artists in marble that also made them artists in language. " Of 
all the beautiful things which they created," says Professor Jebb, 
'' their own language was the most beautiful." This language they 
wrought into epics, lyrics, dramas, histories, and orations as in- 
comparable in form and beauty as their temples and statues. 

The Homeric Poems. — The earliest specimens of Greek poetry 
are the so-called " Homeric poems," consisting of the Iliad and 
the Odyssey. The subject of the Iliad (from Ilios, Troy) is the 
" Wrath of Achilles." The Odyssey tells of the long wanderings 
of the hero Odysseus (Ulysses) up and down over many seas 
while seeking his native Ithaca, after the downfall of Ilios. These 
poems exerted an incalculable influence upon the literary and 
religious life of the Hellenic race. 

The Iliad must be pronounced the world's greatest epic. It 
has been translated into all languages, and has been read with 
an ever fresh interest by generation after generation for nearly 
three thousand years. Alexander slept with a copy beneath his 
pillow, — a copy prepared especially for him by his preceptor 
Aristotle, and called the " casket edition," from the jewelled box 
in which Alexander is said to have kept it. We preserve it quite 
as sacredly in all our courses of classical study. The poem has 
made warriors as well as poets. It incited the military ambition 
of Alexander, of Hannibal, and of Caesar ; it inspired Virgil, Dante, 
and Milton. All epic writers have taken it as their model. 



THE HOMERIC POEMS. 



191 



Date and Authorship of the Homeric Poems. — Until the rise 
of modern German criticism, the Iliad and the Odyssey were almost 
universally ascribed to a sin- 
gle bard named Homer, who 
was believed to have lived 
about the middle of the ninth 
or tenth century B.C., one or 
two centuries after the events 
commemorated in his poems. 
Though tradition represents 
many cities as contending for 
the honor of having been his 
birthplace, still he was gen- 
erally regarded as a native of 
Smyrna, in Asia Minor. He 
travelled widely (so it was 
believed), lost his sight, and 
then, as a wandering minstrel, 
sang his immortal verses 
to admiring listeners in the 
different cities of Hellas. 

But it is now the opinion of many scholars that the Iliad and 
the Odyssey, as they stand to-day, are not, either of them, the 
creation of a single poet. They are believed to be mosaics ; that 
is, to be built up out of the fragments of an extensive ballad litera- 
ture that grew up in an age preceding the Homeric. The " Wrath 
of Achilles," which forms the nucleus of the Iliad as we have it, 
may, with very great probability, be ascribed to Homer, whom we 
may believe to have been the most prominent of a brotherhood of 
bards who flourished about 850 or 750 B.C. 

The Hesiodic Poems. — Hesiod, who lived a century or more 
after the age that gave birth to the Homeric poems, was the poet 
of nature and of real life, especially of peasant life, in the dim 
transition age of Hellas. The Homeric bards sing of the deeds 
of heroes, and of a far-away time when gods mingled with men. 




HOMER. 



192 GREEK LITERATURE. 

Hesiod sings of common men, and of every-day, present duties. 
His greatest poem, a didactic epic, is entitled Works and Days. 
This is, in the main, a sort of farmers' calendar, in which the poet 
points out to the husbandman the lucky and unlucky days for 
doing certain kinds of work, eulogizes industry, and intersperses 
among all his practical lines homely maxims of morality and beauti- 
ful descriptive passages of the changing seasons. 

Lyric Poetry : Pindar. — The ^olian island of Lesbos was the 
hearth and home of the earlier lyric poets. Among the earliest of 
the Lesbian singers was the poetess Sappho, whom the Greeks 
exalted to a place next to Homer. Plato calls her the Tenth Muse. 
Although her fame endures, her poetry, except some mere frag- 
ments, has perished. 

Anacreon was a courtier at the time of the Greek tyrannies. 
He was a native of Ionia, but passed much of his time at the court 
of Polycrates of Samos. He seems to have enjoyed to the full 
the gay and easy life of a courtier, and sung so voluptuously of love 
and wine and festivity that the term " Anacreontic " has come to 
be used to characterize all poetry over-redolent of these themes. 

But the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, and perhaps the 
greatest of all lyric poets of every age and race, was Pindar (about 
522-443 B.C.). He was born at Thebes, but spent most of his 
time in the cities of Magna Grgecia. Such was the reverence in 
which his memory was held that when Alexander, one hundred 
years after Pindar's time, levelled the city of Thebes to the ground 
on account of a revolt, the house of the poet was spared, and left 
standing amid the general ruin (see p. 161) . The greater number 
of Pindar's poems were inspired by the scenes of the national festi- 
vals. They describe in lofty strains the splendors of the Olympian 
chariot-races, or the glory of the victors at the Isthmian, the 
Nemean, or the Pythian games. 

Pindar insists strenuously upon virtue and self-culture. With 
deep meaning he says, " Become that which thou art ; " that is, 
be that which you are made to be. 



THE GREEK DRAMA. 



193 



2. The Drama and Dramatists. 

Origin of the Greek Drama. — The Greek drama, in both its 
branches of tragedy and comedy, grew out of the songs and dances 
instituted in honor of the god of wine — Dionysus (the same as 
the Roman Bacchus). 

Tragedy (goat- song, probably from the accompanying sacrifice 
of a goat) sprang from the graver songs, and comedy (village- 
song) from the lighter and more farcical ones. Gradually, recital 
and dialogue were added, there being at first but a single speaker, 
then two, and finally three, which last was the classical number. 
Thespis (about 536 
B.C.) is said to have 
introduced this im- 
provement ; hence 
the term "Thespian" 
applied to the tragic 
drama. 

Owing to its origin, 
the Greek drama al- 
ways retained a relig- 
ious character, and 
further, presented two distinct features, the chorus (the songs 
and dances) and the dialogue. At first, the chorus was the 
all-important part ; but later, the dialogue became the more 
prominent portion, the chorus, however, always remaining an 
essential feature of the performance. Finally, in the golden 
age of the Attic stage, the chorus dancers and singers were care- 
fully trained, at great expense, and the dialogue became the master- 
piece of some great poet, — and then the Greek drama, the most 
splendid creation of human genius, was complete. 

The Three Great Tragic Poets. — There are three great names 
m Greek tragedy, — y^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. These 
dramatists all wrote during the splendid period which followed the 
victories of the Persian war, when the intellectual Hfe of all Hellas, 




BACCHIC PROCESSION. 



194 



GREEK LITERATURE, 



and especially that of Athens, was strung to the highest tension. 
This lent nervous power and intensity to almost all they wrote, 
particularly to the tragedies o.f yEschylus and Sophocles. Of the 
two hundred and more dramas produced by these poets, only 
thirty-two have escaped the accidents of time. 

yEschylus (525-456 B.C.) knew how to touch the hearts of the 
generation that had won the victories of the Persian war ; for he 
had fought with honor at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. But it 
was on a very different arena that he was destined to win his most 
enduring fame. Eleven times did he carry off the prize in tragic 
composition. The Athenians called him the " Father of Tragedy." 

The central idea of his dramas is 
that " no mortal may dare raise his 
heart too high," — that " Zeus tames 
excessive lifting up of heart." Pro- 
metheus Bound is one of his chief 
works. Another of his great trage- 
dies is Agametnnon, thought by 
some to be his masterpiece. The 
subject is the crime of Clytemnestra 
(see p. 96) . It is a tragedy crowded 
with spirit-shaking terrors, and filled 
with more than human crimes and 
woes. Nowhere is portrayed with 
greater power the awful vengeance with which the implacable 
Nemesis is armed. 

Sophocles (495-405 B.C.) while yet a youth gained the prize in 
a poetic contest with y^schylus. Plutarch says that ^^schylus was 
so chagrined by his defeat that he left Athens and retired to 
Sicily. Sophocles now became the leader of tragedy at Athens. 
In almost every contest he carried away the first prize. He lived 
through nearly a century, a century, too, that comprised the most 
brilliant period of the hfe of Hellas. His dramas were perfect 
works of art. The leading idea of his pieces is the same as 
that which characterizes those of ^^schylus ; namely, that self-will 




/ESCHYLUS. 



GREEK DRAMATISTS. 



195 



and insolent pride arouse the righteous indignation of tlie gods, 
and that no mortal can contend successfully against the will of 
Zeus. 

Euripides (485-406 fj.c.) 
was a more popular drama- 
tist than either ^schylus or 
Sophocles. His fame passed 
far beyond the limits of 
Greece. Herodotus asserts 
that the verses of the poet 
were recited by the natives 
of the remote country of Ge- 
drosia; and Plutarch says 
that the Sicilians were so fond 
of his lines that many of the 
Athenian prisoners, taken 
before Syracuse, bought their 
liberty by teaching their mas- 
ters his verses. 

Comedy: Aristophanes. — 
Foremost among all writers 
of comedy must be placed 
Aristophanes (about 444- 
380 B.C.). He introduces 
us to the every- day life of 
the least admirable classes 
of Athenian society. Four 
of his most noted works are 
the Clouds, the Knights^ the 
Birds, and the Wasps. 

In the comedy of the Clouds, Aristophanes especially ridicules 
the Sophists, a school of philosophers and teachers just then rising 
into prominence at Athens, of whom the satirist unfairly makes 
Socrates the representative. 

The aim of the Knights was the punishment and ruin of Cleon, 




SOPHOCLES. 



196 



GREEK LITERATURE. 



whom we already know as one of the most conceited and insolent 
of the demagogues of Athens. 

The play of the Birds is " the everlasting allegory of foohsh 

sham and flimsy ambition." It was 
aimed particularly at the ambitious 
Sicihan schemes of Alcibiades ; for 
at the time the play appeared, the 
Athenian army was before Syracuse, 
and elated by good news daily ar- 
riving, the Athenians were building 
the most gorgeous air-castles, and 
indulging in the most extravagant 
day-dreams of universal dominion. 

In the Wasps, the poet satirizes 
the proceedings in the Athenian law- 
courts, by showing how the great 
citizen-juries, numbering sometimes 
five or six hundred, were befooled by the demagogues. But Aris- 
tophanes was something more than a master of mere mirth-pro- 
voking satire and ridicule : many of the choruses of his pieces are 
inexpressibly tender and beautiful. 




EURIPIDES. 




HERODOTUS. 



3. History and Historians. 

Poetry is the first form of literary expression 
among all peoples. So we must not be sur- 
prised to find that it was not until several centu- 
ries after the composition of the Homeric poems 
— that is, about the sixth century B.C. — that 
prose-writing appeared among the Greeks. His- 
torical composition was then first cultivated. We 
can speak briefly of only three historians, — 
Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, — 
whose names were cherished among the an- 
cients, and whose writings are highly valued 
and carefully studied by ourselves. 



HERODOTUS. 



197 



Herodotus. — Herodotus (about 484-402 b.c), born at Hali- 
carnassus, in Asia Minor, is called the "Father of History." He 
travelled over much of the then known world, visiting Italy, Egypt, 
and Babylonia, and as an eye-witness describes with a never- 
failing vivacity and freshness the wonders of the different lands 
he had seen. Herodotus lived in a story-telling age, and he is him- 
self an inimitable story-teller. To him we are indebted for a large 
part of the tales of antiquity — stories of men and events which we 
never tire of repeating. He was over-credulous, and was often 
imposed upon by his guides in Egypt and at Babylon ; but he 
describes with great care and accuracy what he himself saw. It is 
sometimes very difficult, however, to determine just what he actu- 
ally did see with his own eyes and experience in his own person ; 
for it seems certain that, following the custom of the story-tellers 
of his time, he often related as his own personal adventures the 
experiences of others, yet with no thought of deceiving. In this 
he might be likened to our modern writers of historical romances. 

The central theme of his great History is the Persian wars, the 
struggle between Asia and Greece. Around this he groups the 
several stories of the nations of antiquity. In the, pictures which 
the artist-historian draws, we see vividly contrasted, as in no other 
writings, the East and the West, Persia and Hellas. 

Thucydides. — Thucydides (about 471-400 b.c), 
though not so popular an historian as Herodo- 
tus, was a much more philosophical one. He 
was born near Athens. A pretty story is told of 
his youth, which must be repeated, though critics 
have pronounced it fabulous. The tale is that 
Thucydides, when only fifteen, was taken by his 
father to hear Herodotus recite his history at the 
Olympian games, and that the reading and the 
accompanying applause caused the boy to shed 
tears, and to resolve to become an historian. 

Thucydides was engaged in military service during the first 
years of the Peloponnesian War ; but, on account of his being 




THUCYDIDES. 



193 GREEK LITERATURE. 

unfortunate, possibly through his own neglect, the Athenians de- 
prived him of his command, and he went into an exile of twenty 
years. It is to this circumstance that we are indebted for his inval- 
uable History of the War between the Peloponnesimis and the 
Athenians. 

Through the closest observation and study, he qualified himself 
to become the historian of what he from the first foresaw would 
prove a memorable war. " I lived," he says, " through its whole 
extent, in the very flower of my understanding and strength, and 
with a close application of my thoughts, to gain an exact insight 
into all its occurrences." He died before his task was completed. 
The work is considered a model of historical writing. Demos- 
thenes read and re-read his writings to improve his own style ; 
and the greatest orators and historians of modern times have been 
equally diligent students of the work of the great Athenian. 

Xenophon. — Xenophon (about 445-355 ^-C-) was an Athe- 
nian, and is known both as a general and a writer. The works that 
render his name so familiar are his Anabasis, a simple yet thrilling 
narrative of the Expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks ; and his 
Memorabilia, or Recollections of Socrates. This work by his 
devoted pupil is the most faithful portraiture that we possess of 
that philosopher. 

4. Oratory. 

Influence of the Public Assembly. — The art of oratory among 
the Greeks was fostered and developed by the democratic char- 
acter of their institutions. The public assemblies of the demo- 
cratic cities were great debating clubs, open to all. The gift of 
eloquence secured for its possessor a sure pre-eminence. The 
law-courts, too, especially the great jury-courts of Athens, were 
schools of oratory ; for every citizen was obliged to be his own 
advocate and to defend his own case. Hence the attention be- 
stowed upon public speaking, and the high degree of perfecdon 
attained by the Greeks in the difficult art of persuasion. Almost 
all the prominent Athenian statesmen were masters of oratory. 



THEMIS TO CLE S AND PERICLES. 



199 



Themistocles and Pericles. — We have already become ac- 
quainted with Themistocles and Pericles as statesmen and leaders 
of Athenian affairs during the most stirring period of the history of 
Athens. They both were also great orators, and to that fact were 
largely indebted for their power 
and influence. Thucydides has 
preserved the oration delivered 
by Pericles in commemoration of 
those who fell in the first year of 
the Peloponnesian War. It is 
an incomparable picture of the 
beauty and glory of Athens at the 
zenith of her power, and has been 
pronounced one of the finest pro- 
ductions of antiquity. The lan- 
guage of the address, as we have 
it, is the historian's, but the sen- 
timents are doubtless those of the 
great statesman. It was the habit 
of Thucydides to put speeches 
into the mouths of his characters. 

Demosthenes and -^schines. — 
It has been the fortune of Demos- 
thenes (385-322 b.c.) to have 
his name become throughout the 
world the synonym of eloquence. 
The labors and struggles by 
which, according to tradition, he 
achieved excellence in his art 
are held up anew to each genera- 
tion of youth as guides of the 

path to success. His first address before the public assembly was 
a complete failure, owing to defects of voice and manner. With 
indomitable will he set himself to the task of correcting these. 
He shut himself up in a cave, and gave himself to the diligent 




200 GREEK LITERATURE. 

study of Thucydides. That he might not be tempted to spend 
his time in society, he rendered his appearance ridiculous by shav- 
ing one side of his head. To correct a stammering utterance, he 
spoke with pebbles in his mouth, and broke himself of an un- 
gainly habit of shrugging his shoulders by speaking beneath a 
suspended sword. To accustom himself to the tumult and inter- 
ruptions of a public assembly, he declaimed upon the noisiest sea- 
shore. 

These are some of the many stories told of the world's greatest 
orator. There is doubtless this much truth in them at least — ■ 
that Demosthenes attained success, in spite of great discourage- 
ments, by persevering and laborious effort. It is certain that he 
was a most dihgent student of Thucydides, whose great history 
he is said to have known by heart. More than sixty of his ora- 
tions have been preserved. " Of all human productions they 
present to us the models which approach the nearest to per- 
fection." 

The latter part of the life of Demosthenes is intertwined with 
that of another and rival Athenian orator, yEschines. For his 
services to the state, the Athenians proposed to award to Demos- 
thenes a golden crown. ^Eschines opposed this. All Athens and 
strangers from far and near gathered to hear the rival orators ; for 
every matter at Athens was decided by a great debate. Demos- 
thenes made the grandest effort of his life. His address, known 
as the -" Oration on the Crown," has been declared to be " the 
most polished and powerful effort of human oratory." ^schines 
was completely crushed, and was sent into exile, and became a 
teacher of oratory at Rhodes. 

He is said to have once gathered his disciples about him and to 
have read to them the oration of Demosthenes that had proved so 
fatal to himself. Carried away by the torrent of its eloquence, his 
pupils, unable to restrain their enthusiasm, burst into applause. 
" Ah !" said ^^^schines, who seemed to find solace in the fact that 
his defeat had been at the hands of so worthy an antagonist, " you 
should have heard the wild beast himself roaring it out ! " 



THE ALEXANDRIAN AGE. 



201 



Respecting the orations of Demosthenes against PhiHp of Mace- 
don, and the death of the eloquent patriot, we have already spoken 
(see pp. 1 60, 174). 

5. The Alexandrian Age. 

(The Alexandrian period of Greek literature embraces the time 
between the break-up of Alexander's empire and the conquest 
of Greece by Rome (300-146 
B.C.). During this period Al- 
exandria in Egypt was the cen- 
tre of literary activity, hence the 
term Alexanih'ian, applied to 
the literature of the age. The 
great Museum and Library of 
the Ptolemies afforded in that 
capital such facilities for stu- 
dents and authors as existed in 
no other city in the world. 

But the creative age of Greek 
literature was over. With the 
loss of political ^berty, litera- 
ture was cut off from its sources 
of inspiration. Consequently 
the Alexandrian literature 
lacked freshness and original- 
ity. The writers of the period 
were grammarians, commenta- 
tors, and translators, — in a 
word, book- worms. 

One of the most important literary undertakings of the age was 
the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. From the tra- 
ditional number of translators (seventy) the version is known as 
the Sephiagint (Latin for seventy.) The work was probably be- 
gun by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and was completed under his suc- 
cessors. 




IDEAL SCENE IN THE ALEXANDRIAN 
LIBRARY. 



202 GREEK LITERATURE. 

Among the poets of the period one name, and only one, stands 
out clear and pre-eminent. This is that of Theocritus, a SiciHan 
idyllist, who wrote at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
His idyls are beautiful pictures of Sicilian pastoral life. 

Conclusion : Grseco-Roman writers. — After the Roman con- 
quest of Greece, the centre of Greek literary activity shifted from 
Alexandria to Rome. Hence Greek literature now passes into 
what is known as its Grseco-Roman period (146 B.C.-527 a.d.). 

The most noted historical writer of the first part of this period 
was Polybius (about 203-121 B.C.), who wrote a history of the 
Roman conquests from 264 to 146 B.C. His work, though the 
larger part of it has reached us in a very mutilated state, is of 
great worth ; for Polybius wrote of matters that had become his- 
tory in his own day. He had lived to see the larger part of the 
world he knew absorbed by the ever-growing power of the Imperial 
City. 

Plutarch (b. about 40 a.d.), "the prince of ancient biogra- 
phers," will always live in literature as the author of the Parallel 
Lives, in which, with great wealth of illustrative anecdotes, he com- 
pares or contrasts Greek and Roman statesmen and soldiers. 



THE SEVEN SAGES. 203 



CHAPTER XX. 

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

The Seven Sages; the Forerunners. — About the sixth century 
B.C. there hved and taught in different parts of Hellas many phi- 
losophers of real or reputed originality and wisdom. Among these 
were seven men, called the " Seven Sages," who held the place of 
pre-eminence.^ To them belongs the distinction of having first 
aroused the Greek intellect to philosophical thought. The wise 
sayings — such as "Know thyself" and " Nothing in excess " ■ — 
attributed to them, are beyond number. 

The ethical maxims and practical proverbs ascribed to the 
sages, while, hke the so-called proverbs of Solomon, they con- 
tain a vast amount of practical wisdom, still do not constitute 
philosophy proper, which is a systematic search for the reason 
and causes of things. They form simply the introduction or 
prelude to Greek philosophy. 

The Ionic Philosophers. — The first Greek school of philosophy 
grew up in the cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor, where almost all 
forms of Hellenic culture seem to have had their beginning. The 
founder of the system was Thales of Miletus (about 640-550 b.c), 
who was followed by Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus. 

One tenet held in common by all these philosophers was that 
matter and mind are inseparable ; or, in other words, that all 
matter is animate. They never thought of the soul as something 
distinct and separable from matter as we do. Even the soul in 

1 As in the case of the Seven Wonders of the World, ancient writers were 
not always agreed as to what names should be accorded the honor of enrol- 
ment in the sacred number. Thales, Solon, Periander, Qeobulus, Chilo, Bias, 
and Pittacus are, however, usually reckoned as the Seven Wise Men. 



204 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

Hades was conceived as having a body in every respect like that 
the soul possessed in the earthly life, only it was composed of a 
subtler substance. This conception of matter as being alive will 
help us to understand Greek mythology, which, it will be remem- 
bered, endowed trees, rivers, springs, clouds, the planets, all phys- 
ical objects indeed, with intelligence and will. 

Pythagoras. — Pythagoras (about 580-500 b.c.) was born on 
the island of Samos, whence his title of " Samian Sage." Probable 
tradition says that he spent many years of his early life in Egypt, 
where he became versed in all the mysteries of the Egyptians. He 
returned to Greece with a great reputation, and finally settled at 
Crotona, in Italy. 

Like many another ancient philosopher, Pythagoras sought to 
increase the reverence of his disciples for himself by peculiarities 
of dress and manner. His uncut hair and beard flowed down 
upon his shoulders and over his breast. He never smiled. His 
dress was a white robe, with a golden crown. For the first years 
of their novitiate, his pupils were not allowed to look upon their 
master. They listened to his lectures from behind a curtain. 
Ipse dixit, " he himself said so," was the only argument they must 
employ in debate. It is to Pythagoras, according to legend, that 
we are indebted for the word philosopher. Being asked of what 
he was n"iaster, he replied that he was simply a " philosopher," 
that is, a " lover of wisdom." 

Pythagoras held views of the solar system that anticipated by 
two thousand years those of Copernicus and his school. He 
taught, only to his most select pupils however, that the earth is a 
sphere ; and that, like the other planets, it revolves about a cen- 
tral globe of fire. From him comes the pretty conceit of the 
" music of the spheres." He imagined that the heavenly spheres, 
by their swift, rolling motions, produced musical notes, which 
united in a celestial melody, too refined, however, for human 
ears. 

He taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, an idea 
he had doubtless brought from Egypt. Because of this belief the 



ANAXAGOJ^AS. 205 

Pythagoreans were strict vegetarians, abstaining religiously from 
the use of all animal food. 

Anaxagoras. — Anaxagoras (499-427 b.c.) was the first Greek 
philosopher who made mind, instead of necessity or chance, the 
arranging and harmonizing force of the universe. " Reason rules 
the world " was his first maxim. 

Anaxagoras was the teacher in philosophy of Pericles, and it is 
certain that that statesman was greatly influenced by the liberal 
views of the philosopher ; for in his general conceptions of the 
universe, Anaxagoras was far in advance of his age. He ventured 
to believe that the moon was somewhat like the earth, and in- 
habited ; and taught that the sun was not a god, but a glowing 
rock, as large, probably, as the Peloponnesus. 

But for his audacity, the philosopher suffered the fate of Galileo 
in a later age ; he was charged with impiety and exiled. Yet this 
did not disturb the serenity of his mind. In banishment he said, 
" It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who 
have lost me." 

Empedocles and Democritus. — In the teachings of Empedocles 
(about 492-432 B.C.) and Democritus (about 460-370 b.c.) we 
meet with many speculations respecting the constitution of matter 
and the origin of things which are startlingly similar to some of 
the doctrines held by modern scientists. Empedocles, with the 
evolutionists of to-day, taught that the higher forms of life arise 
out of the lower ; Democritus conceived all things to be com- 
posed of invisible atoms, all alike in quality, but differing in form 
and combination. 

The Sophists. — The Sophists, of whom the most noted were 
Protagoras, Gorgias, and Prodicus, were a class of philosophers or 
teachers who gave instruction in rhetoric and the art of disputa- 
tion. They travelled about from city to city, and contrary to the 
usual custom of the Greek philosophers, took fees from their 
pupils. They were shallow but brilliant men, caring more for the 
dress in which the thought was arrayed than for the thought itself, 
more for victory than for truth ; and some of them inculcated a 



206 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 



selfish morality. The better philosophers of the time despised 
them, and applied to them many harsh epithets, taunting them 
with selling wisdom, and accusing them of boasting that they 
could " make the worse appear the better reason." 

Socrates. — Volumes would not contain what would be both 
instructive and interesting respecting the lives and works of the 
three great philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We can, 
however, accord to each only a few words. Of these three emi- 
nent thinkers, Socrates (469-399 B.C.), though surpassed in grasp 

and power of intellect by both Plato and 
Aristotle, has the firmest hold upon the 
affections of the world. 

Nature, while generous to the philos- 
opher in the gifts of soul, was unkind to 
him in the matter of his person. His 
face was ugly as a satyr's, and he had 
an awkward, shambling walk, so that he 
invited the shafts of the comic poets 
of his time. He loved to gather a little 
circle about him in the Agora or in the 
streets, and then to draw out his listen- 
ers by a series of ingenious questions. 
His method was so peculiar to himself 
that it has received the designation of the " Socratic dialogue." 
He has very happily been called an educator, as opposed to an 
instructor. In the young men of his time Socrates found many 
devoted pupils. The youthful Alcibiades declared that " he was 
forced to stop his ears and flee away, that he might not sit down 
by the side of Socrates and grow old in Hstening." 

Socrates was unfortunate in his domestic relations. Xanthippe, 
his wife, seems to have been of a practical turn of mind, and un- 
able to sympathize with the abstracted ways of her husband. 

This great philosopher believed that the proper study of man- 
kind is man, his favorite maxim being " Know Thyself"; hence 




SOCRATES. 



PLA TO. 



207 



he is said to have brought philosophy from the heavens and intro- 
duced it to the homes of men. 

Socrates held the Sophists in aversion, and in opposition to their 
selfish expediency taught the purest system of morals that the 
world had yet known, and which has been surpassed only by the 
precepts of the Great Teacher. He thought himself to be re- 
strained from entering upon what was inexpedient or wrong 
by a tutelary spirit. He believed in the immortality of the soul 
and in a Supreme Ruler of the universe, but sometimes spoke 
slightingly of the temples and the popular deities. This led to his 
prosecution on the double charge of blasphemy and of corrupting 
the Athenian youth. The fact that Alcibiades had been his pupil 
was used to prove the demoralizing tendency of his teachings. 
He was condemned to drink the fatal hemlock. The night before 
his death he spent with his disciples, discoursing on the immor- 
tality of the soul. 

Plato. — Plato (429-348 B.C.), " the broad-browed," was a phi- 
losopher of noble birth, before whom in youth a brilliant career 
in the world of Greek affairs opened ; but, coming under the influ- 
ence of Socrates, he resolved to give up 
all his prospects in politics and devote 
himself to philosophy. Upon the con- 
demnation and death of his master he 
went into voluntary exile. In many lands 
he gathered knowledge and met with 
varied experiences. He visited Sicily, 
where he was so unfortunate as to call 
upon himself the resentment of Diony- 
sius, tyrant of Syracuse, through having 
worsted him in an argument, and also by 
an uncourtly plainness of speech. The 
king caused him to be sold into slavery 
as a prisoner of war. Being ransomed by a friend, he found his 
way to his native Athens, and established a school of philosophy in 
the Academy, a public garden close to Athens. Here amid the dis- 







PLATO. 



208 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

ciples that thronged to his lectures, he passed the greater part 
of his long life, — he died 348 B.C., at the age of eighty-one years, 
— laboring incessantly upon the great works that bear his name. 

Plato imitated in his writings the method of Socrates in conversa- 
tion. The discourse is carried on by questions and answers, hence 
the term Dialogues that attaches to his works. He attributes to his 
master, Socrates, much of the philosophy that he teaches : yet 
his Dialogues are all deeply tinged with his own genius and 
thought. In the Republic Plato portrays his conception of an 
ideal state. • He was opposed to the republic of Athens, and his 
system, in some of its main features, was singularly like the Feudal 
System of mediaeval Europe. 

The PhcBcio is a record of the last conversation of Socrates with 
his disciples — an immortal argument for the immortality of the 
soul. 

Plato believed not only in a future life (post-existence), but also 
in pre-existence ; teaching that the ideas of reason, or our intu- 
itions, are reminiscences of a past experience.^ Plato's doctrines 
have exerted a profound influence upon all schools of thought and 
philosophies since his day. In some of his precepts he made a 
close approach to the teachings of Christianity. " We ought to 
become like God," he said, " as far as this is possible ; and to 
become like Him is to become holy and just and wise." 

Aristotle. — As Socrates was surpassed by his pupil Plato, so in 
turn was Plato excelled in certain respects by his disciple Aristotle, 
" the master of those who know." In him the philosophical genius 
of the Hellenic intellect reached its culmination. He was born in the 

1 In the following lines from Wordsworth we catch a glimpse of Plato's 

doctrine of pre-existence : — 

" Our birtli is but a sleep and a forgetting; 
The soui that rises with us, our life's star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And Cometh from afar: 
Not in entire fprgetfulness, 
Nor yet in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
From God, who is our home." — Ode on [minortaltty. 



ARISTOTLE. 



209 



Macedonian city of Stagira (384 B.C.), and hence is frequently 
called the " Stagirite." As in the case of Socrates, his personal 
appearance gave no promise of the philosopher. His teacher, 
Plato, however, recognized the gen- 
ius of his pupil, and called him the 
" Mind of the school." 

After studying for twenty years in 
the school of Plato, Aristotle became 
the preceptor of Alexander the 
Great. When Phihp invited him 
to become the tutor of his son, he 
gracefully complimented the philos- 
opher by saying in his letter that he 
was grateful to the gods that the 
prince was born in the same age 
with him. Alexander became the 
liberal patron of his tutor, and aided 
him in his scientific studies by send- 
ing him large collections of plants 
and animals, gathered on his distant 
expeditions. 

At Athens the great philosopher 
delivered his lectures while walking 
about beneath the trees and por- 
ticoes of the Lyceum ; hence the 
term peripatetic (from the Greek 
peripatein, " to walk about ") applied 
to his philosophy. 

Among the productions of his fertile intellect are works on 
rhetoric, logic, poetry, morals and politics, physics and meta- 
physics. For centuries his works were studied and copied and 
commented upon by both European and Asiatic scholars, in the 
schools of Athens and Rome, of Alexandria and Constantinople. 
Until the time of Bacon in England, for nearly two thousand years, 
Aristotle ruled over the realm of mind with a despotic sway. All 




ARISTOTLE. 



210 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

teachers and philosophers acknowledged him as their guide and 
master. 

Zeno and the Stoics. — We are now approaching the period 
when the political life of Hellas was failing, and was being fast 
overshadowed by the greatness of Rome. But the intellectual life 
of the Greek race was by no means eclipsed by the calamity that 
ended its political existence. For centuries after that event the 
poets, scholars, and philosophers of this intellectual people led a 
brilliant career in the schools and universities of the Roman 
world. 

From among all the philosophers of this long period, we can 
select for brief mention only a few. And first we shall speak of 
Zeno and Epicurus, who are noted as founders of schools of phi- 
losophy that exerted a vast influence upon both the thought and 
the conduct of many centuries. 

Zeno, founder of the celebrated school of the Stoics, lived in 
the third century before our era (about 362-264). He taught at 
Athens in a public porch (in Greek, sfoa), from which circumstance 
comes the name applied to his disciples. 

The Stoical philosophy was the outgrowth, in part at least, of 
that of the Cynics, a sect of most rigid and austere morals. The 
typical representative of this sect is found in Diogenes, who lived, 
so the story goes, in a tub, and went about Athens by dayhght 
with a lantern, in search, as he said, of a man. The Cynics were 
simply a race of pagan hermits. 

The Stoics inculcated virtue for the sake of itself. They be- 
lieved — and it would be very difficult to frame a better creed — 
that " man's chief business here is to do his duty." They schooled 
themselves to bear with perfect composure any lot that destiny 
might appoint. Any sign of emotion on account of calamity was 
considered unmanly and unphilosophical. Thus, when told of the 
sudden death of his son, the Stoic replied, " Well, I never imagined 
that I had given life to an immortal." 

Stoicism became a favorite system of thought with certain classes 
of the Romans, and under its teachings and doctrines were nour- 



EPICURUS AND THE EPICUREANS. 



211 



ished some of the purest and loftiest characters produced by the 
pagan world. It numbered among its representatives, in later 
times, the illustrious Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and the 
scarcely less renowned and equally virtuous slave Epictetus. In 
many of its teachings it anticipated Christian doctrines, and was, 
in the philosophical world, a very important preparation for Chris- 
tianity. 

Epicurus and the Epicureans. — Epicurus (342-270 b.c), 
who was a contemporary of Zeno, taught, in opposition to the 
Stoics, that pleasure is the highest good. 
He recommended virtue, indeed, but only 
as a means for the attainment of pleasure ; 
whereas the Stoics made virtue an end in 
itself. In other words, Epicurus said, " Be 
virtuous, because virtue will bring you the 
greatest amount of happiness " ; Zeno said, 
" Be virtuous, because you ought to be." 

Epicurus had many followers in Greece, 
and his doctrines "were eagerly embraced 
by many among the Romans during the 
corrupt period of the Roman empire. 
Many of these disciples carried the doc- 
trines of their master to an excess that he himself would have been 
the first to condemn. Allowing full indulgence to every appetite 
and passion, their whole philosophy was expressed in the proverb, 
" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." No pure or 
exalted life could be nourished in the unwholesome atmosphere 
of such a philosophy. Epicureanism never produced a single 
great character. 

The Skeptics ; Pyrrho. — About the beginning of the third cen- 
tury B.C. skepticism became widespread in Greece. It seemed as 
though men were losing faith in everything. Many circumstances 
had worked together in bringing about this state of universal 
unbelief. A wider knowledge of the world had caused many to 
lose their faith in the myths and legends of the old mythologies. 




EPICURUS. 



212 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

The existence of so many opposing systems of philosophy caused 
men to doubt the truth of any of them. Many thoughtful minds 
were hopelessly asking, "What is truth?" 

Pyrrho (about 360-270 B.C.) was the doubting Thomas of the 
Greeks. He questioned everything, and declared that the great 
problems of the universe could not be solved. He asserted that 
it was the duty of man, and the part of wisdom, to entertain no 
positive judgment on any matter, and thus to ensure serenity and 
peace of mind. 

The disciples of Pyrrho went to absurd lengths in their skepti- 
cism, some of them even saying that they asserted nothing, not 
even that they asserted nothing. They doubted whether they 
doubted. 

The Neo-Platonists. — Neo-Platonism was a blending of Greek 
philosophy and Oriental mysticism. It has been well called the 
"despair of reason," because it abandoned all hope of man's ever 
being able to attain the highest knowledge through reason alone, 
and looked for a Revelation. The centre of this last movement in 
Greek philosophical thought was Alexandria in Egypt, the meet- 
ing-place, in the closing centuries of the ancient world, of the East 
and the West. 

Philo the Jew (b. about 30 B.C.), who labored to harmonize 
Hebrew doctrines with the teachings of Plato, was the forerunner 
of the Neo-Platonists. But the greatest of the school was Ploti- 
nus (a.d. 204-269), who spent the last years of his life at Rome, 
where he was a great favorite. 

Conflict between Neo-Platonism and Christianity. — While 
the Neo-Platonists were laboring to restore, in modified form, the 
ancient Greek philosophy and worship, the teachers of Christi- 
anity were fast winning the world over to a new faith. The two 
systems came into deadly antagonism. Christianity triumphed. 
The gifted and beautiful Hypatia, almost the last representative of 
the old system of speculation and belief, was torn to pieces in the 
streets of Alexandria by a mob of fanatic Christian monks (a.d. 
415). Finally the Roman emperor Justinian forbade the pagan 



SCIENCE AMONG THE GREEKS. 213 

philosophers to teach their doctrines (a.d. 529). This imperial 
edict closed forever the Greek schools, in which for more than a 
thousand years the world had received instruction upon the loftiest 
themes that can engage the human mind. The Greek philoso- 
phers, as living, personal teachers, had finished their work; but 
their systems of thought will never cease to attract and influence 
the best minds of the race. 

Science among the Greeks. 

The contributions of the Greek observers to the physical sciences 
have laid us under no small obligation to them. Some of those 
whom we have classed as philosophers, were careful students of 
nature, and might be called scientists. The great philosopher 
Aristotle wrote some valuable works on anatomy and natural his- 
tory. From his time onward the sciences were pursued with much 
zeal and success. Especially did the later Greeks do much good 
and lasting work in the mathematical sciences. 

Mathematics : Euclid and Archimedes. — Alexandria, in Egypt, 
became the seat of the most celebrated school of mathematics of 
antiquity. Here, under Ptolemy Lagus, flourished Euclid, the 
great geometer, whose work forms the basis of the science of 
geometry as taught in our schools at the present time. Ptolemy 
himself was his pupil. The royal student, however, seems to have 
disliked the severe application required to master the problems of 
Euclid, and asked his teacher if there was not some easier way. 
Euclid replied, "There is no royal road to geometry." 

In the third century B.C., Syracuse, in Sicily, was the home of 
Archimedes, the greatest mathematician that the Grecian world 
produced. 

Astronomy. — Among ancient Greek astronomers, Aristarchus, 
Hipparchus, and Claudius Ptolemy are distinguished. 

Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in the third century B.C., held 
that the earth revolves about the sun as a fixed centre, and rotates 
on its own axis. He was the Greek Copernicus. But his theory 
was rejected by his contemporaries and successors. 



214 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

Hipparchus, who flourished about the middle of the second 
century B.C., was, through his careful observations, the real founder 
of scientific astronomy. He calculated eclipses, catalogued the 
stars, and wrote several astronomical works of a really scientific 
character. 

Claudius Ptolemy Hved in Egypt about the middle of the second 
century after Christ. His great reputation is due not so much to 
his superior genius as to the fortunate circumstance that a vast 
work compiled by him, preserved and transmitted to later times 
almost all the knowledge of the ancients on astronomical and 
geographical subjects. In this way it has happened that his name 
has become attached to various doctrines and views respecting 
the universe, though these probably were not originated by him. 
The phrase Ptolemaic system, however, links his name inseparably 
with that conception of the solar system set forth in his works, 
which continued to be the received theory from his time until 
Copernicus — fourteen centuries later. 

Ptolemy combated the theory of Aristarchus in regard to the 
rotation and revolution of the earth ; yet he believed the earth to 
be a globe, and supported this view by exactly the same argu- 
ments that we to-day use to prove the doctrine. 



EDUCATION. 



215 



CHAPTER XXL 

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 

Education. — Education at Sparta, where it was chiefly gymnas- 
tic, as we have seen (p. 115), was a state affair; but at Athens 
and throughout Greece generally, the youth were trained in private 
schools. These schools were of all grades, ranging from those 
kept by the most obscure teachers, who gathered their pupils in 
some recess of the street, to those established in the Athenian 
Academy and Lyceum by such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle. 




A GREEK SCHOOL. (After a vase-painting.) 

It was only the boys who received education. These Grecian 
boys. Professor Mahaffy imagines, were " the most attractive the 
world has ever seen." At all events, we may believe that they 
were trained more carefully and delicately than the youth among 
any other people before or since the days of Hellenic culture. 



216 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 

In the nursery, the boy was taught the beautiful myths and 
stories of the national mythology. At about seven he entered 
school, being led to and from the place of training by an old slave, 
who bore the name of pedagogue, which in Greek means a guide 
or leader of boys — not a teacher. His studies were grammar, 
music, and gymnastics, the aim of the course being to secure a 
symmetrical development of mind and body alike. 

Grammar included reading, writing, and arithmetic ; music, 
which embraced a wide range of mental accomplishments, trained 
the boy to appreciate the masterpieces of the great poets, to con- 
tribute his part to the musical diversions of private entertainments, 
and to join in the sacred choruses and in the paean of the battle- 
field. The exercises of the palestrae and the gymnasia trained him 
for the Olympic contests, or for those sterner hand-to-hand battle- 
struggles, in which so much depended upon personal strength and 
dexterity. 

Upon reaching maturity, the youth was enrolled in the list of citi- 
zens. But his graduation from school was his " commencement " 
in a much more real sense than with the average modern graduate. 
Never was there a people besides the Greeks whose daily life was 
so emphatically a discipline in liberal culture. The schools of the 
philosophers, the debates of the popular assembly, the practice of 
the law-courts, the religious processions, the representations of an 
unrivalled stage, the Panhellenic games — all these were splendid 
and efficient educational agencies, which produced and maintained 
a standard of average intelligence and culture among the citizens 
of the Greek cities that probably has never been attained among 
any other people on the earth. Freeman, quoted approvingly by 
Mahafify, says that " the average intelligence of the assembled 
Athenian citizens was higher than that of our [the English] House 
of Commons." 

Social Position of Woman. — Woman's social position in ancient 
Greece may be defined in general as being about half-way between 
Oriental seclusion and Western freedom. Her main duties were 
to cook and spin, and to oversee the domestic slaves, of whom she 



THE A TRICAL ENTER TAINMENTS. 



lYl 



herself was practically one. In the fashionable society of Ionian 
cities, she was seldom allowed to appear in public, or to meet, 
even in her own house, the male friends of her husband. In 
Sparta, however, and in Dorian states generally, she was accorded 
much greater freedom, and was a really important factor in society. 

The low position generally assigned the wife in the home had a 
most disastrous effect upon Greek morals. She could exert no 
such elevating or refining influence as she casts over the modern 
home. The men were led to seek social and intellectual sym- 
pathy and companionship outside the family circle, among a class 
of women known as Hetairse, who were esteemed chiefly for their 
brilliancy of intellect. As the most noted representative of this 
class stands Aspasia, the friend of Pericles. 
The influence of the Hetairae was most harm- 
ful to social morality. 

Theatrical Entertainments. — Among the 
ancient Greeks the theatre was a state estab- 
lishment, "a part of the constitution." This 
arose from the religious origin and character 
of the drama (see p. 193), all matters per- 
taining to the popular worship being the 
care and concern of the state. Theatrical 
performances, being religious acts, were pre- 
sented only during religious festivals, and 
were attended by all classes, rich and poor, 
men, women, and children. The women, 
however, except the Hetairae, were, it would 
seem, permitted to witness tragedies only; 
the comic stage was too gross to allow of 
their presence. The spectators sat under 
the open sky ; and the pieces followed one 
after the other in close succession from early 
morning till nightfall. 

There were companies of players who strolled about the coun- 
try, just as the English actors of Shakespeare's time were wont to 




GREEK TRAGIC FIGURE. 



218 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 

do. While the better class of actors were highly honored, ordi- 
nary players were held in very low esteem. The tragic actor 
increased his height and size by wearing thick-soled buskins, an 
enormous mask, and padded garments. The actor in comedy 
wore thin-soled slippers, or socks. The sock being thus a charac- 
teristic part of the make-up of the ancient comic actor, and the 
buskin that of the tragic actor, these foot coverings have come to 
be used as the symbols respectively of comedy and tragedy, as in 
the familiar lines of Dryden : — 

" Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, 
Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear." 

The theatre exerted a great influence upon Greek life. It per- 
formed for ancient Greek society somewhat the same service as 
that rendered to modern society by the pulpit and the press. 
During the best days of Hellas the frequent rehearsal upon the 
stage of the chief incidents in the lives of the gods and the heroes 
served to deepen and strengthen the religious faith of the people ; 
and later, in the Macedonian period, the theatre was one of the chief 
agents in the diffusion of Greek literary culture over the world. 

Banquets and Symposia. — Banquets and drinking-parties 
among the "Greeks possessed some features which set them apart 
from similar entertainments among other peoples. 

The banquet proper was partaken, in later times, by the guest 
in a reclining position, upon couches or divans, arranged about 
the table in the Oriental manner. After the usual courses, a liba- 
tion was poured out and a hymn sung in honor of the gods, and 
then followed that characteristic part of the entertainment known 
as the symposium. 

The symposium was "the intellectual side of the feast." It 
consisted of general conversation, riddles, and convivial songs ren- 
dered to the accompaniment of the lyre passed from hand to 
hand. Generally, professional singers and musicians, dancing-girls, 
jugglers, and jesters were called in to contribute to the merry- 
making. All the while the wine-bowl circulated freely, the rule 



OCCUPATION. 219 

being that a man might drink " as much as he could carry home 
without a guide, — unless he were far gone in years." Here also 
the Greeks applied their maxim, " Never too much." 

The banqueters usually consumed the night in merry-making, 
sometimes being broken in upon from the street by other bands 
of revellers, who made themselves self-invited guests. 

Occupation. — The enormous body of slaves in ancient Greece 
relieved the free population from most of those forms of labor 
classed as drudgery. The aesthetic Greek regarded as degrading 
any kind of manual labor that marred the symmetry or beauty of 
the body. 

At Sparta, and in other states where oligarchical institutions 
prevailed, the citizens formed a sort of military class, strikingly 
similar to the military aristocracy of Feudal Europe. Their chief 
occupation was martial and gymnastic exercises and the adminis- 
tration of public affairs. The Spartans, it will be recalled, were 
forbidden by law to engage in trade. In other aristocratic states, 
as at Thebes, a man by engaging in trade disqualified himself for 
full citizenship. 

In the democratic states, however, speaking generally, labor 
and trade were regarded with less contempt. A considerable por- 
tion of the citizens were traders, artisans, and farmers. 

Life at Athens presented some peculiar features. All Attica 
being included in what we should term the corporate limits of the 
city, the roll of Athenian citizens included a large body of well-to- 
do farmers, whose residence was outside the city walls. The Attic 
plains, and the slopes of the half-encirchng hills, were dotted with 
beautiful villas and inviting farmhouses. 

And then Athens being the head of a great empire of subject 
cities, a large number of Athenian citizens were necessarily em- 
ployed as salaried officials in the minor positions of the public 
service, and thus politics became a profession. In any event, 
the meetings of the popular assembly and the discussion of mat- 
ters of state engrossed more or less of the time and attention of 
every citizen. 



220 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 

Again, the great Athenian jury-courts, which were busied with 
cases from all parts of the empire, gave constant employment to 
nearly one fourth of the citizens, the fee that the juryman received 
enabling him to live without other business. It is said that, in the 
early morning, when the jurymen were passing through the streets 
to the different courts, Athens appeared like a city wholly given 
up to the single business of law. Furthermore, the great public 
works, such as temples and commemorative monuments, which 
were in constant process of erection, afforded employment for a 
vast number of artists and skilled workmen of every class. 

In the Agora, again, at any time of the day, a numerous class 
might have been found whose sole occupation, as in the case of 
Socrates, was to talk. The writer of the '' Acts of the Apostles " 
was so impressed with this feature of life at Athens that he sum- 
marized the habits of the people by saying, "All the Athenians, 
and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, 
but either to tell or to hear some new thing." (Chap. xvii. 21.) 

Slavery. — There was a dark side to Greek life. Hellenic art, 
culture, refinement — '' these good things were planted, like ex- 
quisite exotic flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery." 

The proportion of slaves to the free population in many of the 
states was astonishingly large. In Corinth and y^gina there were 
ten slaves to every freeman. In Attica the proportion was four to 
one ; that is to say, out of a population of about 500,000, 400,000 
were slaves.^ Almost every freeman was a slave owner. It was 
accounted a real hardship to have to get along with less than half 
a dozen slaves. 

This large class of slaves was formed in various ways. In the 
prehistoric period, the fortunes of war had brought the entire 
population of whole provinces into a servile condition, as in cer- 
tain parts of the Peloponnesus. During later times, the ordinary 
captives of war still further augmented the ranks of these unfor- 
tunates. Their number was also largely added to by the slave 

1 The population of Attica in 317 B.C. is reckoned at about 527,000. That 
of Athens in its best daj^s was probably not far from 1 50,000. 



SLA VER Y. 221 

traffic carried on with the barbarian peoples of Asia Minor. Crimi- 
nals and debtors, too, were often condemned to servitude ; while 
foundlings were usually brought up as slaves. 

The relation of master and slave was regarded by the Greek 
as being, not only a legal, but a natural one. A free community, 
in his view, could not exist without slavery. It formed the nat- 
ural basis of both the family and the state, — the relation of master 
and slave being regarded as " strictly analogous to the relation of 
soul and body." Even Aristotle and other Greek philosophers 
approved the maxim that "slaves are simply domestic animals 
possessed of intelhgence." They were regarded as just as neces- 
sary in the economy of the family as cooking utensils. 

In general, Greek slaves were not treated harshly — judging 
their treatment by the standard of humanity that prevailed in 
antiquity. Some held places of honor in the family, and enjoyed 
the confidence and even the friendship of their master. Yet at 
Sparta, where slavery assumed the form of serfdom, the lot of the 
slave was pecuharly hard and unendurable. 

If slavery was ever justified by its fruits, it was in Greece. The 
briUiant civilization of the Greeks was its product, and could 
never have existed without it. As one truthfully says, " Without 
the slaves the Attic democracy would have been an impossibility, 
for they alone enabled the poor, as well as the rich, to take a part 
in public affairs." Relieving the citizen of all drudgery, the sys- 
tem created a class characterized by elegant leisure, refinement, 
and culture. 

We find an almost exact historical parallel to all this in the 
feudal aristocracy of Mediaeval Europe. Such a society has been 
well likened to a great pyramid, whose top may be gilded with 
light, while the base lies in dark shadows. The civilization of 
ancient Hellas was splendid and attractive, but it rested with a 
crushing weight upon all the lower orders of Greek society. 



SECTION III.— ROMAN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE ROMAN KINGDOM. 

(Legendary Date, 753-509 B.C.) 

Divisions of Italy. — The peninsula of Italy, like that of Greece, 
divides itself into three parts — Northern, Central, and Southern 
Italy. The first comprises the great basin of the Po, lying between 
the Alps and the Apennines. In ancient times this part of Italy 
included three districts — Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, which means 
" Gaul on this (the Italian) side of the Alps," and Venetia. 

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Cam- 
pania, facing the Western, or Tuscan Sea ; Umbria and Picenum, 
looking out over the Eastern, or Adriatic Sea ; and Samnium and 
the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain dis- 
tricts of the Apennines. ^ 

Southern Italy comprised the countries of Apulia, Lucania, 
Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria occupied the " heel," and 
Bruttium formed the " toe," of the peninsula. This part of Italy, 
as we have already learned, was called Magna Grsecia, or " Great 
Greece," on account of the number and importance of the Greek 
cities that during the period of Hellenic supremacy were estab- 
lished in these regions. 

The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the 
south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, 
so intimately has its history been interwoven with that of the 
peninsula. In ancient times it was the meeting-place and battle- 
ground of the Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans. q 



EARL V INHABITANTS OF ITAL V. 223 

Early Inhabitants of Italy. — There were, in early times, tliree 
chief races in Italy — the Italians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks. 
The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced many tribes 
(Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Saiimites, etc.), that occupied nearly 
all Central Italy. The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and mari- 
time people of uncertain race, dwelt in Etruria, now Tuscany. 
Before the rise of the Romans they were the leading race in the 
peninsula. Of the establishment of the Greek cities in Southern 
Italy, we have already learned in connection with Grecian History 
(p. in). 

Some five hundred years B.C., the Gauls, a Celtic race, came 
over the Alps, and settling in Northern Italy, became formidable 
enemies of the infant republic of Rome. 

The Latins. — Most important of all the Italian peoples were 
the Latins, who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and the 
Liris. These people, like all the Italians, were near kindred of 
the Greeks, and brought with them into Italy those same customs, 
manners, beliefs, and institutions which we have seen to have 
been the common possession of the various branches of the Aryan 
household (see p. 5). There are said to have been in all Latium 
thirty towns, and these formed an alliance known as the Latin 
League. The city which first assumed importance and leader- 
ship among the towns of this confederation was Alba Tonga, the 
" Long White City," so called because its buildings stretched for 
a great distance along the summit of a whitish ridge. 

The Beginnings of Rome. — The place of preeminence among 
the Latin towns was soon lost by Alba Longa, and gained by 
another city. This was Rome, the stronghold of the Ramnes, 
or Romans, located upon a low hill on the south bank of the 
Tiber, about fifteen miles from the sea. 

The traditions of the Romans place the founding of their city 
in the year 753 b.c. The town was established, it would seem, 
as an outpost to guard the northern frontier of Latium against the 
Etruscans. 

Recent excavations have revealed the foundations of the old 



224 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. 

walls and two of the ancient gates. We thus learn that the city 
at first covered only the top of the Palatine Hill, one of a cluster 
of low eminences close to the Tiber, which, finally embraced 
within the limits of the growing city, became the famed " Seven 
Hills of Rome." From the shape of its enclosing walls, the origi- 
nal city was called Roma Quadrata, " Square Rome." 

The Early Roman State : King, Senate, and Popular Assem- 
bly. — The early Roman state seems to have been formed by the 
union of three communities. These constituted three tribes, 
known as Ramnes (the Romans proper, who gave name to the 
mixed people), Titles, and Luceres. Each of these tribes was 
divided into ten wards, or districts {curice) ; each ward was 
made up of gentes, or clans, and each clan was composed of a 
number of famihes. The heads of these famihes were called 
patres, or '' fathers," and all the members patricians, that is, " chil- 
dren of the fathers." 

At the head of the nation stood the King, who was the father of 
the state. He was at once ruler of the people, commander of 
the army, judge and high priest of the nation, with absolute power 
as to life and death. 

Next to the king stood the Senate, or " council of the old men," 
composed of the " fathers," or heads of the families. This- council 
had no power to enact laws : the duty of its members was simply 
to advise with the king, who was free to follow or to disregard 
their suggestions. 

The Popular Assembly {comiiia curiata) comprised all the citi- 
zens of Rome, that is, all the members of the patrician families, 
old enough to bear arms. It was this body that enacted the laws 
of the state, determined upon peace or war, and also elected the 
king. 

Classes of Society. — The two important classes of the popu- 
lation of Rome under the kingdpm and the early repubHc, were 
the patricians and the plebeians. The former were the mem- 
bers of the three original tribes that made up the Roman people, 
and at first alone possessed political rights. They were proud. 



THE LEGENDARY KINGS. llh 

exclusive, and tenacious of their inherited privileges. The latter 
were made up chiefly of the inhabitants of subjected cities, and 
of refugees from various quarters that had sought an asylum at 
Rome. They were free to acquire property, and enjoyed personal 
freedom, but at first had no political rights whatever. The greater 
number were petty land-owners, who held and cultivated the soil 
about the city. A large part of the early history of Rome is sim- 
ply the narration of the struggles of this class to secure social and 
political equality with the patricians. 

Besides these two principal orders, there were two other classes — 
clients and slaves. The former were attached to the families of 
patricians, who became their patrons, or protectors. The con- 
dition of the client was somewhat like that of the serf in the 
feudal system of the Middle Ages. A large clientage was con- 
sidered the crown and glory of a patrician house. 

The slaves were, in the main, captives in war. Their number, 
small at first, gradually increased as the Romans extended their 
conquests, till they outnumbered all the other classes taken to- 
gether, and more than once turned upon their masters in formida- 
ble revolts that threatened the very existence of the Roman state. 

The Legendary Kings. — For nearly two and a half centuries 
after the founding of Rome (from 753 to 509 B.C., according to 
tradition), the government was a monarchy. To span this period, 
the legends of the Romans tell of the reigns of seven kings — 
Romulus, the founder of Rome ; Numa, the lawgiver ; Tullus 
Hostilius and Ancus Martins, conquerors both ; Tarquinius Priscus, 
the great builder ; Servius Tullius, the reorganizer of the govern- 
ment and second founder of the state ; and Tarquinius Superbus, 
the haughty tyrant, whose oppressions led to the abolition by the 
people of the office of king. 

The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what 
happened to them, blend hopelessly fact and fable. We caimot 
be quite sure even as to the names. Respecting Roman affairs, 
however, under the last three rulers (the Tarquins), who were of 
Etruscan origin, some important things are related, the substantial 



226 



THE ROMAN KINGDOM. 



truth of which we may rely upon with a fair degree of cer- 
tainty; and these matters we shall notice in the following para- 
graphs. 

Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. — The Tarquins extended 
their authority over the whole of Latium. The position of suprem- 
acy thus given Rome was naturally attended by the rapid growth 
in population and importance of the little Palatine city. The orig- 
inal walls soon became too strait for the increasing multitudes ; 
new ramparts were built — tradition says under the direction of 




VIEW OF THE CAPITOLINE, WITH THE CLOACA MAXIMA; (A Reconstruction.) 



the king Servius Tullius — which, with a great circuit of seven 
miles, swept around the entire cluster of the Seven Hills. A large 
tract of marshy ground between the Palatine and Capitoline hills 
was drained by means of the Cloaca Maxima, the " Great Sewer," 
which was so admirably constructed that it has been preserved to 
the present day. It still discharges its waters through a great arch 
into the Tiber. The land thus reclaimed became the Forum, the 
assembling-place of the people. Upon the summit of the Capito- 



THE NEW CONSTITUTION. Ill 

line Hill, overlooking the Forum, was built the famous sanctuary 
called the Capitol, or the Capitoline temple, where beneath the 
same roof were the shrines of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the 
three great national deities. Upon the level ground between 
the Aventine and the Palatine was laid out the Circus Maximus, 
the " Great Circus," where were celebrated the Roman games. 

New Constitution of Servins Tullius. — The second king of the 
Etruscan house, Servius Tullius by name, effected a most impor- 
tant change in the constitution of the Roman state. He did here at 
Rome just what Solon at about this time did at Athens (see p. 120) . 
He made property instead of birth the basis of the constitution. 
The entire population w^as divided into five classes, the first of 
which included all citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, who 
owned \.yNQx\X^ jugera (about twelve acres) of land; the fifth and 
lowest embraced all that could show title to even two jugera. The 
army was made up of the members of the five classes ; as it was 
thought right and proper that the public defence should be the 
care of those who, on account of their possessions, were most in- 
terested in the maintenance of order and in the protection of the 
boundaries of the state. 

The assembling-place of the military classes thus organized was 
on a large plain just outside the city walls, called the Campus 
Martins, or "Field of Mars." The meeting of these mihtary 
orders was called the comitia centuriata, or the " assembly of 
hundreds."' This body, which of course was made up of patri- 
cians and plebeians, gradually absorbed the powers of the earlier 
patrician assembly (^comitia ciiriata). 

The Expulsion of the Kings. — The legends make Tarquinius 
Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome. He is 
represented as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused 
both patricians and plebeians to unite and drive him and all his 
house into exile. This event, according to tradition, occurred in 

1 This assembly was not organized by Servius Tullius, but it grew out of the 
military organization he created. 



228 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. 

the year 509 B.C., only one year later than the expulsion of the 
tyrants from Athens (see p. 122). 

So bitterly did the people hate the tyranny they had abolished 
that it is said they all, the nobles as well as the commons, bound 
themselves by most solemn oaths never again to tolerate a king. 
We shall hereafter see how well this vow was kept for nearly five 
hundred years. 

The Roman Religion. 

The Chief Roman Deities. — The basis of the Roman religious 
system was the same as that of the Grecian : the germs of its in- 
stitutions were brought from the same home in Central Asia. At 
the head of the Pantheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential 
attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector 
of the Roman people. To him, together with Juno and Minerva, 
was consecrated, as we have already noticed, a magnificent temple 
upon the summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Forum 
and the city. Mars, the god of war, standing next in rank, was 
the favorite deity and the fabled father of the Roman race, who 
were fond of calling themselves the " children of Mars." They 
proved themselves worthy offspring of the war-god. Martial games 
and festivals were celebrated in his honor during the first month 
of the Roman year, which bore, and still bears, in his honor, the 
name of March. Janus was a double-faced deity, " the god of 
the beginning and the end of everything." The month of January 
was sacred to him, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of 
his temple were always kept open in time of war and shut in time 
of peace. 

The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol 
of the goddess Vesta. Her worship was a favorite one with the 
Romans. The nation, too, as a single great family, had a common 
national hearth in the Temple of Vesta, where the sacred fires 
were kept burning from generation to generation by six virgins, 
daughters of the Roman state. The Lares and Penates were 
household gods. Their images were set in the entrance of the 



ORACLES AND DIVINATION. 



ll"^ 



dwelling. The Lares were the spirits of ancestors, which were 
thought to linger about the home as its guardians. 

Oracles and Divination. — The Romans, like the Greeks, 
thought that the will of the gods was communicated to men by 
means of oracles, and by strange sights, unusual events, or singular co- 
incidences. There were 
no true oracles at Rome. 
The Romans, therefore, 
often had recourse to 
those in Magna Graecia, 
even sending for advice, 
in great emergencies, to 
the Delphian shrine. 
From Etruria was intro- 
duced the art of the 
haruspices, or sooth- 
sayers, which consisted 
in discovering the 
divine mind by the ap- 
pearance of victims 
slain for the sacrifices. 

The Sacred Colleges. 
— The four chief sa- 
cred colleges, or socie- 
ties, were the Keepers 
of the Sibylline Books, 
the College of Augurs, 
the College of Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds. 

A curious legend is told of the Sibylline Books. An old 
woman came to Tarquinius Superbus and offered to sell him, for 
an extravagant price, nine volumes. As the king declined to pay 
the sum demanded, the woman departed, destroyed three of the 
books, and then, returning, offered the remainder at the very 
same sum that she -had wanted for the complete number. The 
king still refused to purchase ; so the sibyl went away and de- 




VESTAL VIRGIN. 



230 THE ROMAN KINGDOM, 

stroyed three more of the volumes, and bringing back the remain- 
ing three, asked the same price as before. Tarquin was by this 
time so curious respecting the contents of the mysterious books 
that he purchased the remaining vokmies. It was found upon 
examination that they were filled with prophecies respecting the 
future of the Roman people. The books were placed in a stone 
chest, which was kept in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple ; 
and special custodians were appointed to take charge of them and 
interpret them. The number of keepers, throughout the most 
important period of Roman history, was fifteen. The books were 
consulted only in times of extreme danger. 

The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to 
interpret the omens, or auspices, which were casual sights or 
appearances, by which means it was believed that Jupiter made 
known his will. Great skill was required in the " taking of the 
auspices," as it was called. No business of importance, public or 
private, was entered upon without first consulting the auspices, to 
ascertain whether they were favorable. The public assembly, for 
illustration, must not convene, to elect officers or to enact laws, 
unless the auspices had been taken and found propitious. Should 
a peal of thunder occur while the people were holding a meeting, 
that was considered an unfavorable omen, and the assembly must 
instantly disperse. 

The College of Pontiffs was so called because one of the 
duties of its members was to keep in repair the bridges {pontes) 
over which the religious processions were accustomed to pass. 
This was the most important of all the religious institutions of the 
Romans ; for to the pontiffs belonged the superintendence of all 
religious matters. In their keeping, too, was the calendar, and 
they could lengthen or shorten the year, which power they some- 
times used to extend the office of a favorite or to cut short that 
of one who had incurred their displeasure. The head of the 
college was called Pontifex Maximus, or the Chief Bridge-builder, 
which title was assumed by the Roman emperors, and after them 
by the Christian bishops of Rome ; and thus the name has come 
down to our own times. 



SACRED GAMES. 231 

The College of Heralds had the care of all public matters per- 
taining to foreign nations. If the Roman people had suffered any 
wrong from another state, it was the duty of the heralds to demand 
satisfaction. If this was denied, and war determined upon, then 
a herald proceeded to the frontier of the enemy's country and 
hurled over the boundary a spear dipped in blood. This was a 
declaration of war. The Romans were very careful in the observ- 
ance of this ceremony. 

Sacred (Grames. — The Romans had many religious games and 
festivals. Prominent among these were the so-called Circensian 
Games, or Games of the Circus, which were very similar to the 
sacred games of the Greeks (see p. io6). They consisted, in 
the main, of chariot-racing, wrestling, foot-racing, and various 
other athletic contests. 

These festivals, as in the case of those of the Greeks, had their 
origin in the belief that the gods delighted in the exhibition of 
feats of skill, strength, or endurance ; that their anger might be 
appeased by such spectacles ; or that they might be persuaded 
by the promise of games to lend aid to mortals in great emergen- 
cies. At the opening of the year it was customary for the Roman 
magistrate, in behalf of the people, to promise to the gods games 
and festivals, provided good crops, protection from pestilence, and 
victory were granted the Romans during the year. So, too, a 
general in great straits in the field might, in the name of the state, 
vow plays to the gods, and the people were sacredly bound by his 
act to fulfil the promise. Plays given in fulfilment of vows thus 
made were called votive games. 

Towards the close of the repubhc these games lost much of 
their religious character, and at last became degraded into mere 
brutal shows given by ambitious leaders for the purpose of v/inning 
popularity. 



232 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC : CONQUEST OF ITALY. 

(509-264 B.C.) 

The First Consuls. — With the monarchy overthrown and the 
last king and his house banished from Rome, the people set to 
work to reorganize the government. In place of the king, there 
were elected (by the comitia centuriata, in which assembly the 
plebeians had a place) two patrician magistrates, called consuls,^ 
who were chosen for one year, and were invested with all the 
powers, save some priestly functions, that had been held by the 
monarch during the regal period. 

In public each consul was attended by twelve servants, called 
lictors, each of whom bore an axe bound in a bundle of rods 
{fasces), the symbols of the authority of the consul to flog and 
to put to death. Within the limits of the city, however, the axe 
must be removed from tht fasces, by which was indicated that no 
Roman citizen could be put to death by the consuls without the 
consent of the public assembly. 

Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were the first 
consuls under the new constitution. But it is said that the very 
name of Tarquinius was so intolerable to the people that he was 
forced to resign the consulship, and that he and all his house were 
driven out of Rome." Another consul, Pubhus Valerius, was 
chosen in his stead. 

1 That is, colleagues. Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or 
vetoing the commands of the other. In times of great public danger the con- 
suls were superseded by a special officer called a dictator, whose term of 
office was limited to six months, but whose power during this time was as 
unlimited as that of the kings had been. 

■^ The truth is, he was related to the exiled royal family, and the people were 
distrustful of his loyalty to the republic. 



SECESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS. 233 

First Secession of the Plebeians (494 b.c.) . — Taking advantage 
of the disorders that followed the political revolution, the Latin 
towns which had been forced to acknowledge the supremacy of 




LICTORS. 



Rome rose in revolt, and the result was that almost all the con- 
quests that had been made under the kings were lost. For a long 
time the little republic had to struggle hard for bare existence. 

Troubles without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians, 
during this period of disorder and war, fell in debt to the wealthy 



234 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

class, — for the Roman soldier went to war at his own charge, 
equipping and feeding himself, — and payment was exacted with 
heartless severity. A debtor became the absolute property of his 
creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay the debt, and in 
some cases even put him to death. All this was intolerable. The 
plebeians determined to secede from Rome and build a new city 
for themselves on a neighboring eminence, called afterwards the 
Sacred Hill. They marched away in a body from Rome to the 
chosen spot, and began making preparations for erecting new 
homes (494 B.C.). 

The Covenant and the Tribunes. — The patricians saw clearly 
that such a division must prove ruinous to the state, and that the 
plebeians must be persuaded to give up their enterprise and come 
back to Rome. The consul Valerius was sent to treat with the 
insurgents. The plebeians were at first obstinate, but at last were 
persuaded to yield to the entreaties of the embassy to return, 
being won to this mind, so it is said, by one of the wise senators, 
Menenius, who made use of the well-known fable of the Body and 
the Members. 

The following covenant was entered into, and bound by the 
most solemn oaths and vows before the gods : The debts of the 
poor plebeians were to be cancelled and those held in slavery set 
free ; and two magistrates (the number was soon increased to 
ten), called tribunes, whose duty it should be to watch over the 
plebeians, and protect them against the injustice, harshness, and 
partiality of the patrician magistrates, were to be chosen from the 
commons. The persons of these officers were made sacred. Any 
one interrupting a tribune in the discharge of his duties, or doing 
him any violence, was declared an outlaw, whom any one might 
kill. That the tribunes might be always easily found, they were 
not allowed to go more than one mile beyond the city walls. 
Their houses were to be open night as well as day, that any 
plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee thither for protection and 
refuge. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of the change effected 



CORIOLANUS. 235 

in the Roman constitution by the creation of this office of the trib- 
unate. Under the protection and leadership of the tribunes, who 
were themselves protected by oaths of inviolable sanctity, the ple- 
beians carried on a struggle for a share in the offices and dignities 
of the state which never ceased until the Roman government, as 
yet only republican in name, became in fact a real democracy, in 
which patrician and plebeian shared equally in all emoluments and 
privileges. 

Coriolanus. — The tradition of Coriolanus illustrates in what 
manner the tribunes cared for the rights of the common people 
and protected them from the oppression of the nobles. During 
a severe famine at Rome, Gelon, the King of Syracuse, sent large 
quantities of grain to the capital for distribution among the suffer- 
ing poor. A certain patrician, Coriolanus by name, made a proposal 
that none of the grain should be given to the plebeians save on con- 
dition that they give up their tribunes. These officials straightway 
summoned him before the plebeian assembly,^ on the charge of 
having broken the solemn covenant of the Sacred Mount, and so 
bitter was the feeling against him that he was obliged to flee from 
Rome. 

He DOW allied himself with the Volscians, enemies of Rome, 
and even led their armies against his native city. An embassy 
from the Senate was sent to him, to sue for peace. But the spirit 
of Coriolanus was bitter and revengeful, and he would listen to 
none of their proposals. Nothing availed to move him until his 
mother, at the head of a train of Roman matrons, came to his 
tent, and with tears pleaded with him to spare the city. Her 
entreaties and the " soft prayers " of his own wife and children 

^ The Assembly of Tribes {comiHa tributa), an assembly which came into 
existence about this time. It was made up wholly of plebeians, and was pre- 
sided over by the tribunes. Later, there came into existence another tribal 
assembly, which was composed of patricians and plebeians, and presided over 
by consuls or praetors. Some authorities are inclined to regard these two 
assemblies as one and the same body; but others, among whom is Mommsen, 
with probably better reason, look upon them as two distinct organizations. 



236 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

prevailed, and with the words' " Mother, thou hast saved "Rome, 
but lost thy son," he led away the Volscian army. 

Cincinnatus made Dictator. — The enemies of Rome, taking 
advantage of the dissensions of the nobles and commons, pressed 
upon the frontiers of the republic on all sides. In 458 B.C., the 
T^quians, while one of the consuls was away fighting the Sabines, 
defeated the forces of the other, and shut them up in a narrow 
valley, whence escape seemed impossible. There was great terror 
in Rome when news of the situation of the army was brought to 
the city. 

The Senate immediately appointed Cincinnatus, a noble patri- 
cian, dictator. The ambassadors that carried to him the message 
from the Senate found him upon his little farm near the Tiber, at 
work behind the plough. Accepting the office at once, he hastily 
gathered an army, marched to the reUef of the consul, captured 
the entire army of the y^quians, and sent them beneath the yoke.^ 
Cincinnatus then led his army back to Rome in triumph, laid 
down his office, and sought again the retirement of his farm. 

The Decemvirs and the Tables of Laws. — Written laws are 
always a great safeguard against oppression. Until what shall 
constitute a crime and what shall be its penalty are clearly written 
down and well known and understood by all, judges may render 
unfair decisions, or inflict unjust punishment, and yet run lit- 
tle risk — unless they go altogether too far — of being called to 
an account; for no one but themselves knows what the law or 
the penalty really is. Hence in all struggles of the people against 
the tyranny of the ruling class, the demand for written laws is one 
of the first measures taken by the people for the protection of 
their persons and property. Thus we have seen the people of 
Athens, early in their struggle with the nobles, demanding and 
obtaining a code of written laws (see p. 119). The same thing 
now took place at Rome. The plebeians demanded that a code 

1 This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed 
a few feet from the earth by a third. Prisoners of war were forced to pass 
beneath this yoke as a symbol of submission. 



THE DECEMVIRS. 237 

of laws be drawn up, in accordance with which the consuls, who 
exercised judicial powers, should render their decisions. The 
l^atricians offered a stubborn resistance to their wishes, but finally 
were forced to yield to the popular clamor. 

A commission was sent to the Greek cities of Southern Italy 
and to Athens to study the Grecian laws and customs. Upon the 
return of this embassy, a commission of ten magistrates, who were 
known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws 
(451 B.C.). These officers, while engaged in this work, were also 
to administer the entire government, and so were invested with 
the supreme power of the state. The patricians gave up their 
consuls and the plebeians their tribunes. At the end of the first 
year, the task of the board was quite far from being finished, so 
a new decemvirate was elected to complete the work. Appius 
Claudius was the only member of the old board that was returned 
to the new. 

The code was soon finished, and the laws were written on 
twelve tablets of brass, which were fastened to the rostrum, or 
orator's platform in the Forum, where they might be seen and 
read by all. These '' Laws of the Twelve Tables " were to Roman 
jurisprudence what the good laws of Solon (see p. 120) were to 
the Athenian constitution. They formed the basis of all new 
legislation for many centuries, and constituted a part of the educa- 
tion of the Roman youth — every school-boy being required to 
learn them by heart. 

Misrule and Overthrow of the Decemvirs. — The first decemvirs 
used the great power lodged in their hands with justice and pru- 
dence ; but the second board, under the leadership of Appius 
Claudius, instituted a most infamous and tyrannical rule. The 
result was a second secession of the plebeians to the Sacred Hill. 
This procedure, which once before had proved so effectual in 
securing justice to the oppressed, had a similar issue now. The 
situation was so critical that the decemvirs were forced to resign. 
The consulate and the tribunate were restored. Eight of the 



238 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

decemvirs were forced to go into exile ; Appius Claudius and one 
other, having been imprisoned, committed suicide. 

Consular, or Military Tribunes. — The overthrow of the de- 
cemvirate was followed by a long struggle between the nobles and 
the commons, which was an effort on the part of the latter to gain 
admission to the consulship ; for up to this time only a patrician 
could hold that office. The contention resulted in a compromise. 
It was agreed that, in place of the two consuls, the people 7night 
elect from either order magistrates, who should be known as " mili- 
tary tribunes with consular powers." These officers, whose num- 
bers varied, differed from consuls more in name than in functions 
or authority. In fact, the plebeians had gained the office, but not 
the name (444 B.C.). 

The Censors. — No sooner had the plebeians virtually secured 
admission to the consulship, than the jealous and exclusive patri- 
cians commenced scheming to rob them of the fruit of the victory 
they had gained. They effected this by taking from the consulate 
some of its most distinctive duties and powers, and conferring 
them upon two new patrician officers called censors. The func- 
tions of these magistrates were many and important. They took 
the census, and thus assigned to every man his position in the 
different classes of the citizens ; and they could, for immorahty 
or any improper conduct, not only degrade a man from his rank, 
but deprive him of his vote. It was their duty to watch the public 
morals and in case of necessity to administer wholesome advice. 
Thus we are told of their reproving the young Romans for wear- 
ing tunics with long sleeves — an Oriental and effeminate custom 
— and for neglecting to marry upon arriving at a proper age. 
From the name of these Roman officers comes our word censori- 
ous, meaning fault-finding. 

The first censors were elected probably in the year 444 B.C. ; 
about one hundred years afterwards, in 351 B.C., the plebeians 
secured the right of holding this office also. 

Siege and Capture of Veii. — We must now turn to notice the 
fortunes of Rome in war. Almost from the founding of the city, 



THE SACKING OF ROME. 



239 



we find its warlike citizens carrying on a fierce contest with their 
powerful Etruscan neighbors on the north. Veii was one of the 
largest and richest of the cities of Etruria. Around this the war 
gathered. The Romans, like the Gre- 
cians at Troy, attacked its walls for ten 
years. The length of the siege, and 
the necessity of maintaining a force 
permanently in the field, led to the 
establishment of a paid standing army ; 
for hitherto the soldier had not only 
equipped himself, but had served with- 
out pay. Thus was laid the basis of 
that military power which was destined 
to effect the conquest of the world, 
and then, in the hands of ambitious 
and favorite generals, to overthrow the 
republic itself. 

The capture of Veii by the dictator 
Camillus (396 B.C.) was followed by 
that of many other Etruscan towns. 
Rome was enriched by th :ir spoils, 

and became the centre o ■• ^ ^rge and lucrative trade. The fron- 
tiers of the republic we, ushed out even beyond the utmost 
limits of the kingdom before its overthrow. All that was lost 
by the revolution had been now regained, and much besides had 
been won. At this moment there broke upon the city a storm 
from the north, which all but cut short the story we are narrating. 

Sack of Rome by the Gauls (390 b.c). — We have already 
mentioned how, in very remote times, the tribes of Gaul crossed 
the Alps and established themselves in Northern Italy (see p. 
223). While the Romans were conquering the towns of Etruria, 
these barbarian hordes were moving southward, and overrunning 
and devastating the countries of Central Italy. 

News was brought to Rome that they were advancing upon that 
city. A Roman army met them on the banks of the river Allia, 




ROMAN SOLDIER. 



240 



THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 



eleven miles from the capital. The Romans were driven in great 
panic from the field. It would be impossible to picture the con- 
sternation and despair that reigned at Rome when the fugitives 
brought to the city intelligence of the terrible disaster. It was 
never forgotten, and the day of the battle of Allia was ever after 
a black day in the Roman calendar. The sacred vessels of the 
temples were buried ; the eternal fires of Vesta were hurriedly 




GAULS iN SIGHT OF ROME. 



borne by their virgin keepers to a place of safety in Etruria ; and 
a large part of the population fled in dismay across the Tiber. 
No attempt was made to defend any portion of the city save the 
citadel. This stronghold was kept by a little garrison, under the 
command of the hero Marius Manlius. A tradition tells how, 
when the barbarians, under cover of the darkness of night, had 
climbed the steep rock and had almost effected an entrance to 



THE REBUILDING OF ROME. 241 

the citadel, the defenders were awakened by the cackling of some 
geese, which the piety of the famishing soldiers had spared, 
because these birds were sacred to Juno. 

News was now brought the Gauls that the Venetians were over- 
running their possessions in Northern Italy. This led them to 
open negotiations with the Romans. For one thousand pounds 
of gold, according to the historian Livy, the Gauls agreed to retire 
from the city. As the story runs, while the gold was being weighed 
out in the Forum, the Romans complained that the weights were 
false, when Brennus, the Gallic leader, threw his sword also into 
the scales, exclaiming, " Voe. victisf' ''Woe to the vanquished." 
Just at this moment, so the tale continues, Camillus, a brave patri- 
cian general, appeared upon the scene with a Roman army that 
had been gathered from the fugitives ; and, as he scattered the 
barbarians with heavy blows, he exclaimed, " Rome is ransomed 
with steel and not with gold," According to one account Brennus 
himself was taken prisoner ; but another tradition says that he 
escaped, carrying with him not only the ransom, but a vast booty 
besides. 

The Rebuilding of Rome. — When the fugitives returned to 
Rome after the withdrawal of the Gauls, they found the city a 
heap of ruins. Some of the poorer classes, shrinking from the 
labor of rebuilding their old homes, proposed to abandon the site 
and make Veil their new capital. But love for the old spot at 
last prevailed over all the persuasions of indolence, and the people, 
with admirable courage, set themselves to the task of rebuilding 
their homes. It was a repetition of the scene at Athens after 
the retreat of the Persians (see p. 136). The city was speedily 
restored, and was soon enjoying her old position of supremacy 
among the surrounding states. There were some things, liow- 
ever, which even Roman resolution and perseverance could not 
restore. These were the ancient records and documents, through 
whose irreparable loss the early history of Rome is involved in 
great obscurity and uncertainty. 

Treason and Death of Manlius. — The ravages of the Gauls 



242 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

left the poor plebeians in a most pitiable condition. In order to 
rebuild their dwellings and restock their farms, they were obliged 
to borrow money of the rich patricians, and consequently soon 
began again to experience the insult and oppression that were ever 
incident to the condition of the debtor class at Rome. 

The patrician Manhus, the hero of the brave defence of the 
Capitol, now came forward as the champion of the plebeians. 
He sold the larger part of his estates, and devoted the proceeds to 
the relief of the debtor class. It seems evident that in thus under- 
taking the cause of the commons he had personal aims and ambi- 
tions. The patricians determined to crush him. He was finally 
brought to trial before the popular assembly, on the charge of 
conspiring to restore the office of king. From the Forum, where 
the people were gathered, the Capitol, which Manlius had so 
bravely defended against the barbarians, was in full sight. Point- 
ing to the temples he had saved, he appealed to the gods and to 
the gratitude of the Roman people. The people responded to the 
appeal in a way altogether natural. They refused to condemn him. 
But brought to trial a second time, and now in a grove whence 
the citadel could not be seen, he was sentenced to death, and was 
thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.^ This event occurred 384 B.C. 

Plebeians admitted to the Consulship. — For nearly half a cen- 
tury after the death of Manlius the most important events in the 
history of Rome centre about the struggle of the plebeians for 
admission to those offices of the government whence the jealousy 
of the patricians still excluded them. The Licinian laws, so called 
from one of their proposers, the tribune C. Licinius, besides reliev- 
ing the poor of usurious interest, and effecting a more just division 
of the public lands, also provided that consuls should be chosen 
yearly, as at first (see p. 238), and that one of the consuls should 

1 The Tarpeian Rock was the name given to the cUff which the Capitoline 
Hill formed on the side towards the Tiber (or towards the Palatine, according 
to some). It received its name from Tarpeia, daughter of one of the legen- 
dary keepers of the citadel. State criminals were frequently executed by being 
thrown from this rock. 



THE FIRST SAMNITE WAR. 243 

be a plebeian. This last provision opened to any one of the ple- 
beian class the highest office in the state. The nobles, when they 
saw that it would be impossible to resist the popular demand, had 
recourse to the old device. They effected a compromise, whereby 
the judicial powers of the consuls were taken from them and con- 
ferred upon a new magistrate, who bore the name of praetor. 
Only patricians, of course, were to be ehgible to this new office. 
They then permitted the Licinian laws to pass (367 B.C.). 

During the latter half of the fourth century b.c. (between the 
years 356-300) the plebeians gained admittance to the dictator- 
ship, the censorship, the prsetorship, and to the College of Augurs 
and the College of Pontiffs. They had been admitted to the 
College of Priests having charge of the Sibylline books, at the time 
of the passing of the Licinian laws. With plebeians in all these 
positions, the rights of the lower order were fairly secured against 
oppressive and partisan decisions on the part of the magistrates, 
and against party fraud in the taking of the auspices and in the 
regulation of the calendar. There was now political equality 
between the nobility and the commonalty. 

Wars for the Mastery of Italy. 

The First Samnite War (343-341 b.c). — The union of the two 
orders in the state allowed the Romans now to employ their un- 
divided strength in subjugating the different states of the peninsula. 
The most formidable competitors of the Romans for supremacy in 
Italy were the Samnites, rough and warlike mountaineers who held 
the Apennines to the east of Latium. They were worthy rivals of 
the ''children of Mars." The successive struggles between these 
martial races are known as the First, Second, and Third Samnite 
wars. They extended over a period of half a century, and in their 
course involved almost all the states of Italy. 

Of the first of this series of wars we know very little, although 
Livy wrote a long, but unfortunately very unreliable, narration of 
it. In the midst of the struggle, Rome was confronted by a dan- 



244 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

gerous revolt of her Latin allies, and, leaving the war unfinished, 
turned her forces upon the insurgents. 

Revolt of the Latin Cities (340-338 b.c). — The strife between 
the Romans and their Latin allies was simply the old contest within 
the walls of the capital between the patricians and the plebeians 
transferred to a larger arena. x4lS the nobles had oppressed the 
commons, so now both these orders united in the oppression of 
the Latins — the plebeians in their bettered circumstances forget- 
ting the lessons of adversity. The Latin allies demanded a share 
in the government, and that the lands acquired by conquest 
should be distributed among them as well as among Roman citi- 
zens. The Romans refused. All Latium rose in revolt against the 
injustice and tyranny of the oppressor. 

After about three years' hard fighting, the rebellion was sub- 
dued. The Latin League was now broken up. Some of the 
towns retained their independence (Tibur, Praeneste, and Cora) ; 
some received full Roman citizenship (Aricia, Lanuvium, and 
Nomentum) ; while others received only the private rights of 
Roman citizens, the right of suffrage being withheld. 

Second and Third Samnite Wars (326-290 b.c). — In a few 
years after the close of the Latin contest, the Romans were at war 
again with their old rivals, the Samnites. Notwithstanding the 
latter were thoroughly defeated in this second contest, still it was 
not long before they were again in arms and engaged in their third 
struggle with Rome. This time they had formed a powerful co- 
alition which embraced all the states of Italy, including the Greek 
cities in the south and the Gallic tribes in the north. 

Roman courage rose with the danger. The united armies of 
the league met with a most disastrous defeat (at Sentinum, 295 
B.C.), and the power of the coalition was broken. One after an- 
other the states that had joined the alliance were chastised. The 
Samnites were overpowered, the Gauls were routed, the Etruscans 
were crushed, and all the important Greek cities of Southern Italy, 
save Tarentum, were forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. 

War withPyrrhus (282-272 ?,.c.). — Tarentum was one of the 



J^FAJ^ WITH PYRRHUS. 245 

most noted of the Hellenic cities of Magna Graecia. It was a sea- 
port on the Calabrian coast, and had grown opulent through the 
extended trade of its merchants. The capture of some Roman 
vessels, and an insult offered to an envoy of the republic by the 
Tarentines, led to a declaration of war against them by the Roman 
Senate. The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king 
of Epirus, a eousin of Alexander the Great, who had an ambition to 
build up such an empire in the West as his renowned kinsman had 
established in the East, responded to their entreaties, and crossed 
over into Italy with a small army of Greek mercenaries and twenty 
war-elephants. He organized and drilled the effeminate Taren- 
tines, and soon felt prepared to face the Romans. 

The hostile armies met at Heraclea (280 B.C.). It is said that 
when Pyrrhus, who had underestimated his foe, observed the skill 
which the Romans evinced in forming their line of battle, he ex- 
claimed, in admiration, " In war, at least, these men are not bar- 
barians." The battle was won for Pyrrhus by his war-elephants, 
the sight of which, being new to the Romans, caused them to flee 
from the field in dismay. But Pyrrhus had lost thousands of his 
bravest troops. Victories gained by such losses in a country where 
he could not recruit his army, he saw clearly, meant final defeat. 
As he looked over the battle-field, he is said to have turned to his 
companions and remarked, " Another such victory, and I must 
return to Epirus alone." He noticed also, and not without appre- 
ciating its significance, that the wounds of the Roman soldiers 
killed in the action were all in front. " Had I such soldiers," 
said he, " I should soon be master of the world." 

The prudence of the victorious Pyrrhus led him to send to the 
Romans an embassy with proposals of peace. When the Senate 
hesitated, its resolution was fixed by the eloquence of the aged 
Appius : '' Rome," exclaimed he, " shall never treat with a victori- 
ous foe." The ambassadors were obliged to return to Pyrrhus 
unsuccessful in their mission. 

Pyrrhus, according to the Roman story-tellers, who most lavishly 
embellished this chapter of their history, was not more successful 



246 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

in attempts at bribery than in the arts of negotiation. Upon his 
attempting by large offers of gold to win Fabricius, who had been 
intrusted by the Senate with an important embassy, the sturdy old 
Roman replied, " Poverty, with an honest name, is more to be 
desired than wealth." 

After a second victory, as disastrous as his first, Pyrrhus crossed 
over into Sicily, to aid the Grecians there in their struggle with 
the Carthaginians. At first he was everywhere successful ; but 
finally fortune turned against him, and he was glad to escape from 
the island. Recrossing the straits into Italy, he once more 
engaged the Romans, but at the battle of Beneventum suffered a 
disastrous and final defeat at the hands of the consul Curius 
Dentatus (274 B.C.). Leaving a sufficient force to garrison 
Tarentum, the bafiled and disappointed king set sail for Epirus. 
He had scarcely embarked before Tarentum surrendered to the 
Romans (272 B.C.). This ended the struggles for the mastery of 
Italy. Rome was now mistress of all the peninsula south of the 
Arnus and the Rubicon. It was now her care to consolidate these 
possessions, and to fasten her hold upon them, by means of a 
perfect network of colonies ^ and military roads. 

1 '* Colonies were not all of the same character. They must be distin- 
guished into two classes — the colonies of Roman citizens and the Latin colo- 
nies. The colonies of Roman citizens consisted usually of three hundred men 
of approved military experience, who went forth with their families to occupy 
conquered cities of no great magnitude, but which were important as military 
positions, being usually on the sea-coast. These three hundred families 
formed a sort of patrician caste, while the old inhabitants sank into the con- 
dition formerly occupied by the plebeians at Rome. The heads of these fami- 
lies retained all their rights as Roman citizens, and might repair to Rome to 
vote in the popular assemblies." — Liddell's History of Rome. 

The Latin colonies numbered about thirty at the time of the Second Punic 
War. A few of these were colonies that had been founded by the old Latin 
Confederacy ; but the most were towns that had been established by Rome 
subsequent to the dissolution of the League (see p. 244). The term Latin 
was applied to these later colonies of purely Roman origin, for the reason that 
they enjoyed the same rights as the Latin towns that had retained their inde- 
pendence. Thus the inhabitants of a Latin colony possessed some of the 
most valuable of the private rights of Roman citizens, but they had no politi- 
cal rights at the capital. 



CARTHAGE. 247 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. 

(264-241 B.C.) 

Carthage and the Carthaginian Empire. — Foremost among 
the cities founded by the Phoenicians upon the different shores 
of the Mediterranean was Carthage, upon the northern coast of 
Africa. The city is thought to have had its beginnings in a small 
trading-post, established late in the ninth century B.C., about one 
hundred years before the founding of Rome. Carthage was 
simply another Tyre. She was mistress and queen of the Western 
Mediterranean. At the period we have now reached, she held 
sway, through peaceful colonization or by force of arms, over all 
the northern coast of Africa from the Greater Syrtis to the Pillars 
of Hercules, and possessed the larger part of Sicily, as well as 
Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Isles, Southern Spain, and scores 
of little islands scattered here and there in the neighboring seas. 
With all its shores dotted with her colonies and fortresses, and 
swept in every direction by the Carthaginian war-galleys, the 
Western Mediterranean had become a " Phoenician lake," in 
which, as the Carthaginians boasted, no one dared wash his hands 
without their permission. 

Carthaginian Government and Religion. — The government 
of Carthage, like that of Rome, was republican in form. Corre- 
sponding to the Roman consuls, two magistrates, called Suffetes, 
stood at the head of the state. The Senate was composed of the 
heads of the leading families ; its duties and powers were very like 
those of the Roman Senate. So well-balanced was the constitu- 
tion, and so prudent was its administration, that six hundred years 
of Carthaginian history exhibited not a single revolution. 

The religion of the Carthaginians was the old Canaanitish wor- 



248 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. 

ship of Baal, or the Sun. To Moloch, — another name for the 
fire-god, — " who rejoiced in human victims and in parents' tears," 
they offered human sacrifices. 

Rome and Carthage compared. — These two great republics, 
which for more than five centuries had been slowly extending 
their limits and maturing their powers upon the opposite shores 
of the Mediterranean, were now about to begin one of the most 
memorable struggles of all antiquity — a duel that was to last, with 
every vicissitude of fortune, for over one hundred years. 

As was the case in the contest between Athens and Sparta, so 
now the two rival cities, with their allies and dependencies, were 
very nearly matched in strength and resources. The Romans, it 
is true, were almost destitute of a navy ; while the Carthaginians 
had the largest and most splendidly equipped fleet that ever 
patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. But although the 
Carthaginians were superior to the Romans in naval warfare, they 
were greatly their inferiors in land encounters. The Carthaginian 
territory, moreover, was widely scattered, embracing extended 
coasts and isolated islands ; while the Roman possessions were 
compact, and confined to a single and easily defended peninsula. 
Again, the Carthaginian armies were formed chiefly of mercenaries, 
while those of Rome were recruited very largely from the ranks of 
the Roman people. And then the subject states of Carthage were 
mostly of another race, language, and religion from their Phoeni- 
cian conquerors, and were ready, upon the first disaster to the 
ruling city, to drop away from their allegiance ; while the Latin 
allies and Italian dependencies of Rome were close kindred to her 
in race and religion, and so, through natural impulse, for the most 
part remained loyal to her during even the darkest periods of her 
struggle with her rival. 

The Beginning of the War. — Lying between Italy and the coast 
of Africa is the large island of Sicily. It is in easy sight of the 
former, and its southernmost point is only ninety miles from the 
latter. At the commencement of the First Punic War, the Car- 
thaginians held possession of all the island save a strip of the 



FIRST NAVAL VICTORY. 249 

eastern coast, which was under the sway of the Greek city of Syra- 
cuse. The Greeks and Carthaginians had carried on an ahnost 
uninterrupted struggle through two centuries for the control of the 
island. The Romans had not yet set- foot upon it. But it was 
destined to become the scene of the most terrible encounters be- 
tween the armaments of the two rivals. Pyrrhus had foreseen it 
all. As he withdrew from the island, he said, ^' What a fine battle- 
field we are leaving for the Romans and Carthaginians." 

In the year 264 B.C., on a flimsy pretext of giving protection to 
some friends, the Romans crossed over to the island. That act 
committed them to a career of foreign conquest destined to con- 
tinue till their arms had made the circuit of the Mediterranean. 

The Syracusans and Carthaginians, old enemies and rivals 
though they had been, joined their forces against the insolent new- 
comers. The allies were completely defeated in the first battle, 
and the Roman army obtained a sure foothold upon the island. 

In the following year both consuls were placed at the head of 
formidable armies for the conquest of Sicily. A large portion of 
the island was quickly overrun, and many of the cities threw off 
their allegiance to Syracuse and Carthage, and became allies of 
Rome. Hiero, king of Syracuse, seeing that he was upon the 
losing side, deserted the cause of the Carthaginians, and formed 
an alliance with the Romans, and ever after remained their firm 
friend. 

The Romans gain their First Naval Victory (260 e.g.). — 
Their experience during the past campaigns had shown the Ro- 
mans that if they were to cope successfully with the Carthaginians, 
they must be able to meet them upon the sea as well as upon the 
land. So they determined to build a fleet. A Carthaginian gal- 
ley that had been wrecked upon the shores of Italy, served as a 
pattern. It is affirmed that, within the almost incredibly short 
space of sixty days, a growing forest was converted into a fleet of 
one hundred and twenty war galleys. 

The consul C. Duillius was entrusted with the command of the 
fleet. He met the Carthaginian squadron near the city and prom- 



250 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. 

ontory of Mylae, on the northern coast of Sicily. Now, distrust- 
ing their ability to match the skill of their enemy in naval tactics, 
the Romans had provided each of their vessels with a drawbridge. 
As soon as a Carthaginian ship came near enough to a Roman 
vessel, this gangway was allowed to fall upon the approaching 
galley ; and the Roman soldiers, rushing along the bridge, were 
soon engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with their enemies, in 
which species of encounter the former were unequalled. The 
result was a complete victory for the Romans. 

The joy at Rome was unbounded. It inspired in the more 
sanguine splendid visions of maritime command and glory. The 
Mediterranean should speedily become a Roman lake, in which no 
vessel might float without the consent of Rome. 

The Romans carry the War into Africa. — The results of the 
naval engagement at Mylae encouraged the Romans to push the 
war with redoubled energy. They resolved to carry it into Africa. 
An immense Carthaginian fleet that disputed the passage of the 
Roman squadron was almost annihilated, and the Romans dis- 
embarked near Carthage. Regulus, one of the consuls who led 
the army of invasion, sent word to Rome that he had sealed up the 
gates of Carthage with terror. P'inally, however, Regulus suffered 
a crushing defeat, and was made prisoner. A fleet which was sent 
to bear away the remnants of the shattered army was wrecked in 
a terrific storm off the coast of Sicily, and the shores of the island 
were strewn with the wreckage of between two and three hundred 
ships and with the bodies of one hundred thousand men. 

Undismayed at the terrible disaster that had overtaken the 
transport fleet, the Romans set to work to build another, and 
made a second descent upon the African coast. The expedition, 
however, accomplished nothing of importance ; and the fleet on 
its return voyage was almost destroyed, just off the coast of Italy, 
by a tremendous storm. 

Regulus and the Carthaginian Embassy. — For a few years 
the Romans refrained from tempting again the hostile powers of 
the sea, and Sicily became once more the battle-ground of the 



THE CARTHAGINIAN EMBASSY. 251 

contending rivals. At last, having lost a great battle (battle of 
Panormus, 251 b.c), the Carthaginians became dispirited, and 
sent an embassy to Rome, to negotiate for peace, or, if that couki 
not be reached, to effect an exchange of prisoners. Among the 
commissioners was Regains, who since his capture, five years 
before, had been held a prisoner in Africa. Before setting out 
from Carthage he had promised to return if the embassy were un- 
successful. For the sake of his own release, the Carthaginians 
supposed he would counsel peace, or at least urge an exchange of 
prisoners. But it is related, that upon arrival at Rome, he coun- 
selled war instead of peace, at the same time revealing to the 
Senate the enfeebled condition of Carthage. As to the exchange 
of prisoners, he said, " Let those who have surrendered when they 
ought to have died, die in the land which has witnessed their 
disgrace." 

The Roman Senate, following his counsel, rejected all the pro- 
posals of the embassy ; and Regulus, in spite of the tears and 
entreaties of his wife and friends, turned away from Rome, and 
set out for Carthage to bear such fate as he well knew the 
Carthaginians, in their disappointment and anger, would be sure 
to visit upon him. 

The tradition goes on to tell how, upon his arrival at Carthage, 
he was confined in a cask driven full of spikes, and then left to 
die of starvation and pain. This part of the tale has been dis- 
credited, and the finest touches of the other portions are supposed 
to have been added by the story-tellers. 

Loss of Two More Roman Fleets. — After the failure of the 
Carthaginian embassy, the war went on for several years by land 
and sea with varying vicissitudes. At last, on the coast of Sicily, 
one of the consuls, Claudius, met with an overwhelming defeat. 
Almost a hundred vessels of his fleet were lost. The disaster 
caused the greatest alarm at Rome. Superstition increased the 
fears of the people. It was reported that just before the battle, 
when the auspices were being taken, and the sacred chickens 
would not eat, Claudius had ejiven orders to have them thrown 



252 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. 

into the sea, irreverently remarking, '^ At any rate, they shall drink." 
Imagination was free to depict what further evils the offended 
gods might inflict upon the Roman state. 

The gloomiest forebodings might have found justification in 
subsequent events. The other consul just now met with a great 
disaster. He was proceeding along the southern coast of Sicily 
with a squadron of eight hundred merchantmen and over one 
hundred war galleys, the former loaded with grain for the Roman 
army on the island. A severe storm arising, the squadron was 
beaten to pieces upon the rocks. Not a single ship escaped. 
The coast for miles was strewn with broken planks, and with 
bodies, and heaped with vast windrows of grain cast up by the 
waves. 

Close of the First Punic War. — The war had now lasted for 
fifteen years. Four Roman fleets had been destroyed, three of 
which had been sunk or broken to pieces by storms. Of the 
fourteen hundred vessels which had been lost, seven hundred were 
war galleys, — all large and costly quinqueremes, that is, vessels 
with five banks of oars. Only one hundred of these had fallen 
into the hands of the enemy ; the remainder were a sacrifice to 
the malign and hostile power of the waves. Such successive 
blows from an invisible hand were enough to blanch the faces 
even of the sturdy Romans. Neptune manifestly denied to the 
'■'■ Children of Mars " the realm of the sea. 

It was impossible for the six years following the last disaster to 
infuse any spirit into the struggle. In 247 B.C., Hamilcar Barcas, 
the father of the great Hannibal, assumed the command of the 
Carthaginian forces, and for several years conducted the war with 
great abiUty on the island of Sicily, even making Rome tremble 
for the safety of her Italian possessions. 

Once more the Romans determined to commit their cause to 
the element that had been so unfriendly to them. A fleet of two 
hundred vessels was built and equipped, but entirely by private 
subscription ; for the Senate feared that public sentiment would 
not sustain them in levying a tax for fitting up another costly 



CLOSE OF THE WAR. 253 

armament as an offering to the insatiable Neptune. This people's 
squadron, as we may call it, was intrusted to the command of the 
consul Catulus. He met the Carthaginian fleet under the com- 
mand of the Admiral Hanno, near the ^Egatian islands, and 
inflicted upon it a crushing defeat. 

The Carthaginians now sued for peace. A treaty was at length 
arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage should give 
up all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all her prisoners, 
and pay an indemnity of 3200 talents (about $4,000,000), one- 
third of which was to be paid down, and the balance in ten yearly 
payments. Thus ended (241 B.C.), after a continuance of twenty- 
four years, the first great struggle between Carthage and Rome. 



254 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 

(218-201 B.C.) 

Rome between the First and the Second Punic War. 

The First Roman Province. — For the twenty-three years that 
followed the close of the first struggle between Rome and Car- 
thage, the two rivals strained every power and taxed every re- 
source in preparation for a renewal of the contest. 

The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it, 
save the lands belonging to Syracuse, as a province of the re- 
public. This was the first territory beyond the limits of Italy 
chat Rome had conquered, and the Sicilian the first of Roman 
provinces. But as the imperial city extended her conquests, her 
provincial possessions increased in number and size until they 
formed at last a perfect cordon about the Mediterranean. Each 
province was governed by a magistrate sent out from the capital, 
and paid an annual tribute, or tax, to Rome. 

Rome acquires Sardinia and Corsica. — The first acquisition 
by the Romans of lands beyond the peninsula seems to have 
created in them an insatiable ambition for foreign conquests. 
They soon found a pretext for seizing the island of Sardinia, the 
most ancient and, after Sicily, the most prized of the possessions 
of the Carthaginians. The island, in connection with Corsica, 
which was also seized, was formed into a Roman province. With 
her hands upon these islands, the authority of Rome m the 
Western, or Tuscan Sea, was supreme. 

The Illyrian Corsairs are punished. — At about the same time, 
the Romans also extended their influence over the seas that wash 
the eastern shores of Italy. For a long time the Adriatic and Ionian 




30 



35 



THE MEDITERRANEAN LANDS 
at the beginning of the 

SECOND PUNIC WAR. 



Boman Possessions and Allies I | Free Greek States I I 

Carthaginian do | j Syrian Possessions I I 

Macedonian do I I Egyptian do I I 





25 



30 



3S 



<o 



SO 



or 



1^ 



OXbia 



4S 




Chersor 



.... ^ , 



fs. 



yapWakouiV 



Jjemno. 



<v, 






-ti^ 



^^; 






CUiosVi z^ ^^ftesMS 




TfiE gEX-EUCI] 

jarsus 



40 



arta 0° V^-s^o"^ 






pa^hw^ 



Bare 



Altars I ^ 
PhilainoC 






JO 




2S 



30 



WAR WITH THE GAULS. 255 

waters had been infested with Illyrian pirates, who issued from the 
roadsteads of the northeastern coasts of the former sea. The 
Roman fleet chased these corsairs from the Adriatic, and cap- 
tured several of their strongholds. Rome now assumed a sort 
of protectorate over the Greek cities of the Adriatic coasts. This 
was her first step towards final supremacy in Macedonia and 
Greece. 

War with the Gauls. — In the north, during this same period, 
Roman authority was extended from the Apennines and the Ru- 
bicon to the foot of the Alps. Alarmed at the advance of the 
Romans, who were pushing northward their great military road, 
called the Flaminian Way, and also settling with discharged sol- 
diers and needy citizens the tracts of frontier land wrested some 
time before from the Gauls, the Boii, a tribe of that race, stirred up 
all the Gallic peoples already in Italy, besides their kinsmen who 
were yet beyond the mountains, for an assault upon Rome. In- 
telligence of this movement among the northern tribes threw all 
Italy into a fever of excitement. At Rome the terror was great ; 
for not yet had died out of memory what the city had once suf- 
fered at the hands of the ancestors of these same barbarians that 
were now again gathering their hordes for sack and pillage. An 
ancient prediction, found in the Sibylline books, declared that a 
portion of Roman territory must needs be occupied by Gauls. 
Hoping sufficiently to fulfil the prophecy and satisfy Fate, the 
Roman Senate caused two Gauls to be buried alive in one of the 
public squares of the capital. 

Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced into Etruria, ravaging 
the country as they moved southward. After gathering a large 
amount of booty, they were carrying this back to a place of safety, 
when they were surrounded by the Roman armies at Telamon, and 
almost annihilated (225 e.g.). The Romans, taking advantage of 
this victory, pushed on into the plains of the Po, captured the city 
which is now known as Milan, and extended their authority to the 
foot-hills of the Alps. 



256 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 



Carthage between the First and the Second Punic War. 

The Truceless War. — Scarcely had peace been concluded with 
Rome at the end of the First Punic War, before Carthage was 
plunged into a still deadlier struggle, which for a time threatened 
her very existence. The mercenary troops, upon their return from 
Sicily, revolted, on account of not receiving their pay. Their 
appeal to the native tribes of Africa was answered by a general 
uprising throughout the dependencies of Carthage. The extent 
of the revolt shows how hateful and hated was the rule of the great 
capital over her subject states. 

The war was unspeakably bitter and cruel. It is known in his- 
tory as " The Truceless War." At one time Carthage was the only 
city remaining in the hands of the government. But the genius 
of the great Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barcas at last tri- 
umphed, and the authority of Carthage was everywhere restored. 

The Carthaginians in Spain. — After the disastrous termination 
of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians determined to repair 
their losses by new conquests in Spain. Hamilcar Barcas was sent 
over into that country, and for nine years he devoted his com- 
manding genius to organizing the different Iberian tribes into a 
compact state, and to developing the rich gold and silver mines of 
the southern part of the peninsula. He fell in battle 228 B.C. 

Hamilcar Barcas was the greatest general that up to this time 
the Carthaginian race had produced. Genius is seldom transmit- 
ted j but in the Barcine family the rule was broken, and the rare 
genius of Hamilcar reappeared in his sons, whom he himself, it is 
said, was fond of calling the " lion's brood." Hannibal, the old- 
est, was only nineteen at the time of his father's death, and being 
thus too young to assume command, Hasdrubal,^ the son-in-law of 
Hamilcar, was chosen to succeed him. He carried out the unfin- 
ished plans of Hamilcar, extended and consolidated the Cartha- 

1 Not to be confounded with Hannibal's own brother Hasdrubal. See p. 
262. 



IIANXIBAi:S VOW. 257 

ginian power in Spain, and upon the eastern coast founded New 
Carthage as the centre and capital of the newly acquired territory. 
The native tribes were conciliated rather than conquered. The 
Barcine family knew how to rule as well as how to fight. 

Hannibal's Vow. — Upon the death of Hasdrubal, which oc- 
curred 221 B.C., Hannibal, now twenty-six years of age, was by 
the unanimous voice of the army called to be their leader. When 
a child of nine years he had been led by his father to the altar ; 
and there, with his hands upon the sacrifice, the little boy had 
sworn eternal hatred to the Roman race. He was driven on to 
his gigantic undertakings and to his hard fate, not only by the 
restless fires of his warlike genius, but, as he himself declared, by 
the sacred obligations of a vow that could not be broken. 

Hannibal attacks Saguntum. — In two years Hannibal ex- 
tended the Carthaginian power to the Ebro. Saguntum, a Greek 
city upon the east coast of Spain, alone remained unsubdued. 
The Romans, who were jealously watching affairs in the peninsula, 
had entered into an alliance with this city, and taken it, with other 
Greek cities in that quarter of the Mediterranean, under their pro- 
tection. Hannibal, although he well knew that an attack upon 
this place would precipitate hostilities with Rome, laid siege to it 
in the spring of 219 B.C. He was eager for the renewal of the old 
contest. The Roman Senate sent messengers to him forbidding 
his making war upon a city which was a friend and ally of the 
Roman people ; but Hannibal, disregarding their remonstrances, 
continued the siege, and, after an investment of eight months, 
gained possession of the town. 

The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand 
of the Senate that they should give up Hannibal to them, and by 
so doing repudiate the act of their general. The Carthaginians 
hesitated. Then Quintus Fabius, chief of the embassy, gathering 
up his toga, said : " I carry here peace and war ; choose, men of 
Carthage, which ye will have." "Give us whichever ye will," was 
the reply. "War, then," said Fabius, dropping his toga. The 
" die was now cast ; and the arena was cleared for the foremost 



258 



THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 



man of his race and his time, perhaps the mightiest mihtary genius 
of any race and of any time." 



The Second Punic War. 

Hannibal's Passage of the Alps. — The Carthaginian empire 
was now stirred with preparations for the impending struggle. 




HANNIBAL. 



Hannibal was the life and soul of every movement. His bold 
plan was to cross the Pyrenees and the Alps and descend upon 
Rome from the north. 



THE PASSAGE OF THE ALPS. 259 

With his preparations completed, Hannibal left New Carthage 
early in the spring of 218 B.C., with an army numbering about one 
hundred thousand men, and including thirty-seven war elephants. 
Crossing the Pyrenees and the Rhone, he reached the foot-hills of 
the Alps. Nature and man joined to oppose the passage. The sea- 
son was already far advanced — it was October — and snow was fall- 
ing upon the higher portions of the trail. Day after day the army 
toiled painfully up the dangerous path. In places the narrow way 
had to be cut wider for the monstrous bodies of the elephants. 
Often avalanches of stone were hurled upon the trains by the hostile 
bands that held possession of the heights above. At last the sum- 
mit was gained, and the shivering army looked down into the 
warm haze of the Italian plains. The sight alone was enough to 
rouse the drooping spirits of the soldiers ; but Hannibal stirred 
them to enthusiasm by addressing them with these words : " Ye 
are standing upon the AcropoHs of Italy ; yonder lies Rome." 
The army began its descent, and at length, after toils and losses 
equalled only by those of the ascent, its thinned battalions issued 
from the defiles of the mountains upon the plains of the Po. Of 
the fifty thousand men and more with which Hannibal had begun 
the passage, barely half that number had survived the march, and 
these " looked more like phantoms than men." 

Battles of the Ticinus, the Trebia, and Lake Trasimenus. — 
The Romans had not the remotest idea of Hannibal's plans. With 
war determined upon, the Senate had sent one of the consuls, L. 
Sempronius Longus, with an army into Africa by the way of Sicily ; 
while the other, Publius Cornelius Scipio, they had directed to 
lead another army into Spain. 

While the Senate were watching the movements of these expe- 
ditions, they were startled with the intelhgence that Hannibal, 
instead of being in Spain, had crossed the Alps and was among 
the Gauls upon the Po. Sempronius was hastily recalled from 
his attempt upon Africa, to the defence of Italy. Scipio, on his 
way to Spain, had touched at Massilia, and there learned of the 



260 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 

movements of Hannibal. He turned back, hurried into Northern 
Italy, and took command of the levies there. The cavalry of the 
two armies met upon the banks of the Ticinus, a tributary of the 
Po. The Romans were driven from the field by the fierce onset 
of the Numidian horsemen. Scipio now awaited the arrival of 
the other consular army, which was hurrying up through Italy by 
forced marches. 

In the battle of the Trebia the united armies of the two consuls 
were almost annihilated. The Gauls, who had been waiting to 
see to which side fortune would incline, now flocked to the stand- 
ard of Hannibal, and hailed him as their deliverer. 

The spring following the victory at the Trebia, Hannibal led his 
army, now recruited by many Gauls, across the Apennines, and 
moved southward. At Lake Trasimenus he entrapped the Ro- 
mans under Flaminius in a mountain defile, where, bewildered by 
a fog that filled the valley, the greater part of the army was 
slaughtered, and the consul himself was slain. 

The way to Rome was now open. Believing that Hannibal 
would march directly upon the capital, the Senate caused the 
bridges that spanned the Tiber to be destroyed, and appointed 
Fabius Maximus dictator. 

In one respect only had events disappointed Hannibal's expec- 
tations. He had thought that all the states of Italy were, like the 
Gauls, ready to revolt from Rome at the first opportunity that 
might offer itself. But not a single city had thus far proved un- 
faithful to her. 

Fabius "the Delayer." — The fate of Rome was now in the 
hands of Fabius. Should he risk a battle and lose it, the destiny of 
the capital would be sealed. He determined to adopt a more pru- 
dent policy — to follow and annoy the Carthaginian army, but to 
refuse all proffers of battle. Thus time might be gained for rais- 
ing a new army and perfecting measures for the public defence. 
In every possible way Hannibal endeavored to draw his enemy 
into an engagement. He ravaged the fields far and wide and fired 
the homesteads of the Italians, in order to force Fabius to fight in 



THE BATTLE OF CANN^. 261 

their defence. The soldiers of the dictator began to murmur. 
They called him Cunctator, or ^' the Delayer." They even accused 
him of treachery to the cause of Rome. But nothing moved him 
from the steady pursuit of the policy which he clearly saw was the 
only prudent one to follow. 

The Battle of Cannae. — The time gained by Fabius enabled the 
Romans to raise and discipline an army that might hope success- 
fully to combat the Carthaginian forces. Early in the summer of 
the year 216 B.C. these new levies, numbering 80,000 men, con- 
fronted the army of Hannibal, amounting to not more than half 
that number, at Cannae, in Apulia. It was the largest army the 
Romans had ever gathered on any battle-field. But it had been 
collected only to meet the most overwhelming defeat that ever 
befell the forces of the republic. Through the skilful manoeuvres 
of Hannibal, the Romans were completely surrounded, and hud- 
dled together in a helpless mass upon the field, and then for eight 
hours were cut down by the Numidian cavalry. From fifty to 
seventy thousand were slain ; a few thousand were taken prison- 
ers ; only the merest handful escaped, including one of the con- 
suls. The slaughter was so great that, according to Livy, when 
Mago, a brother of Hannibal, carried the news of the victory to 
Carthage, he, in confirmation of the intelligence, poured down in 
the porch of the Senate-house, nearly a peck of gold rings taken 
from the fingers of Roman knights. 

Events after the Battle of Cannae. — The awful news flew to 
Rome. Consternation and despair seized the people. The city 
would have been emptied of its population had not the Senate 
ordered the gates to be closed. Never did that body display 
greater calmness, wisdom, prudence, and resolution. By word 
and act they bade the people never to despair of the republic. 
Little by little the panic was allayed. Measures were concerted 
for the defence of the capital, as it was expected that Hannibal 
would immediately march upon Rome. Swift horsemen were 
sent out along the Appian Way to gather information of the con- 
queror's movements, and to learn, as Livy expresses it, "if the 



262 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 

immortal gods, out of pity to the empire, had left any remnant of 
the Roman name." 

The leader of the Numidian cavalry, Maharbal, urged Hanni- 
bal to follow up his victory closely. " Let me advance with the 
cavalry," said he, " and in five days thou shalt dine in the capi- 
tal." But Hannibal refused to adopt the counsel of his impetuous 
general. Maharbal turned away, and, with mingled reproach and 
impatience, exclaimed, " Alas ! thou knowest how to gain a vic- 
tory, but not how to use one." The great commander, while he 
knew he was invincible in the open field, did not think it prudent 
to fight the Romans behind their walls. 

Hannibal now sent an embassy to Rome to offer terms of peace. 
The Senate, true to the Appian pohcy never to treat with a vic- 
torious enemy (see p. 245), would not even permit the ambassa- 
dors to enter the gates. Not less disappointed was Hannibal in 
the temper of the Roman allies. For the most part they adhered 
to the cause of Rome with unshaken loyalty through all these 
trying times. Some tribes in the South of Italy, however, among 
which were the Lucanians, the Apulians, and the Bruttians, went 
over to the Carthaginians. Hannibal marched into Campania and 
quartered his army for the winter in the luxurious city of Capua, 
which had opened its gates to him. Here he rested and sent 
urgent messages to Carthage for re-inforcements, while Rome 
exhausted every resource in raising and equipping new levies, to. 
take the place of the legions lost at Cannae. For several years 
there was an ominous lull in the war, while both parties were 
gathering strength for a renewal of the struggle. 

The Fall of Syracuse and of Capua. — In the year 216 b.c, 
Hiero, King of Syracuse, who loved to call himself the friend and 
ally of the Roman people, died, and the government fell into the 
hands of a party unfriendly to the republic. An alliance was 
formed with Carthage, and a large part of Sicily was carried over 
to the side of the enemies of Rome. The distinguished Roman 
general, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, called " the Sword of Rome," 
was intrusted with the task of reconquering the island. After 
reducing many towns, he at last laid siege to Syracuse. 



THE FALL OF SYRACUSE. 



263 





MARCELLUS, "The Sword of Rome." 



This noted capital was then one of the largest and richest cities 
of the Grecian world. For three years it held out against the 
Roman forces. It is said that Archimedes (see p. 213), the great 
mathematician, rendered valuable aid to the besieged with curious 
and powerful engines contrived 
by his genius. But the city fell 
at last, and was given over to 
sack and pillage. Rome was 
adorned with the rare works of 
Grecian art — paintings and 
sculptures — which for centuries 

had been accumulating in this the oldest and most renowned of 
the colonies of ancient Hellas. Syracuse never recovered from 
the blow inflicted upon her at this time by the relentless Romans. 

Capua must next be punished for opening her gates and ex- 
tending her hospitalities to the enemies of Rome. A line of 
circumvallation was drawn about the devoted city, and two Roman 
armies held it in close siege. Hannibal, ever faithful to his allies 
and friends, hastened to the relief of the Capuans. Unable to 
break the enemy's lines, he marched directly upon Rome, as if 
to make an attack upon that city, hoping thus to draw off the 
legions about Capua to the defence of the capital. The " dread 
Hannibal" himself rode alongside the walls of the hated city, and, 
tradition says, even hurled a defiant spear over the defences. 
The Romans certainly were trembling with fear ; yet Livy tells 
how they manifested their confidence in their affairs by selling at 
public auction the land upon which Hannibal was encamped. 
He in turn, in the same manner, disposed of the shops front- 
ing the Forum. The story is that there were eager purchasers 
in both cases. 

Failing to draw the legions from Capua as he had hoped, Han- 
nibal now retired from before Rome, and, retreating into the 
southern part of Italy, abandoned Capua to its fate. It soon 
fell, and paid the penalty that Rome never failed to inflict upon 
an unfaithful ally. The chief men in the city were put to death. 



264 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 

and a large part of the inhabitants sold as slaves. Capua had as- 
pired to the first place among the cities of Italy : scarcely more 
than the name of the ambitious capital now remained. 

Hasdrubal attempts to carry Aid to his Brother. — During all 
the years Hannibal was waging war in Italy, his brother Hasdrubal 
was carrying on a desperate struggle with the Roman armies in 
Spain. At length he determined to leave the conduct of the war 
in that country to others, and go to the relief of his brother, who 
was sadly in need of aid. Like Pyrrhus, Hannibal had been 
brought to realize that even constant victories won at the cost 
of soldiers that could not be replaced, meant final defeat. 

Hasdrubal followed the same route that had been taken by his 
brother Hannibal, and in the year 207 B.C. descended from the 
Alps upon the plains of Northern Italy. Thence he advanced 
southward, while Hannibal moved northward from Bruttium to 
meet him. Rome made a last great effort to prevent the junction 
of the armies of the two brothers. At the river Metaurus, Has- 
drubal's march was withstood by a large Roman army. Here his 
forces were cut to pieces, and he himself was slain (207 B.C.). 
His head was severed from his body and sent to Hannibal. Upon 
recognizing the features of his brother, Hannibal exclaimed sadly, 
" Carthage, I see thy fate." 

War in Africa: Battle of Zama. — The defeat and death of 
Hasdrubal gave a different aspect to the war. Hannibal now 
drew back into the rocky peninsula of Bruttium, the southernmost 
point of Italy. There he faced the Romans Hke a lion at bay. 
No one dared attack him. It was resolved to carry the war into 
Africa, in hopes that the Carthaginians would be forced to call 
their great commander out of Italy to the defence of Carthage. 
Publius Cornelius Scipio, who after the departure of Hasdrubal 
from Spain had quickly brought the peninsula under the power of 
Rome, led the army of invasion. He had not been long in Africa 
before the Carthaginian Senate sent for Hannibal to conduct the 
war. At Zama, not far from Carthage, the hostile armies came 
face to face. Fortune had deserted Hannibal ; he was fighting 



THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 



265 



against fate. He here met his first and final defeat His army, 
in which were many of the veterans that had served through all 
the Italian campaigns, was almost annihilated (202 B.C.). Scipio 
was accorded a splendid triumph at Rome, and given the surname 
Africanus in honor of his achievements.^ 




PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO (Africanus). 

The Close of the War. — Carthage was now completely ex- 
hausted, and sued for peace. Even Hannibal himself could no 
longer counsel war. The terms of the treaty were much severer 
than those imposed upon the city at the end of the First Punic 
War. She was required to give up all claims to Spain and the 
islands of the Mediterranean ; to surrender her war elephants, and 
all her ships of war save ten galleys ; to pay an indemnity of five 
thousand talents at once, and two hundred and fifty talents annu- 

1 Some time after the close of the Second Punic War, the Romans, per- 
suading themselves that Hannibal was preparing Carthage for another war, 
demanded his surrender of the Carthaginians. He fled to Syria, and thence to 
Asia Minor, where, to avoid falling into the hands of his implacable foes, he 
committed suicide by means of poison (183 B.C.). 



266 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 

ally for iifty years ; and not to engage in any war without the con- 
sent of Rome. Five hundred of the costly Phoenician war galleys 
were towed out of the harbor of Carthage and burned in the sight 
of the citizens. 

Such was the end of the Second Punic, or Hannibalic War, as 
called by the Romans, the most desperate struggle ever main- 
tained by rival powers for empire. 



THE BATTLE OE CYNOSCEPHALM. 261 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE THIRD PUNIC WAR, 

(149-146 B.C.) 

Events between the Second and the Third Punic War. 

The terms imposed upon Carthage at the end of the Second 
Punic War left Rome mistress of the Western .Mediterranean. 
During the fifty eventful years that elapsed between the close of 
that struggle and the breaking-out of the last Punic war, her au- 
thority became supreme also in the Eastern seas. In a preceding 
chapter (see p. 170), while narrating the fortunes of the most im- 
portant states into which the great empire of Alexander was broken 
at his death, we followed them until one after another they fell 
beneath the arms of Rome, and were successively absorbed into 
her growing kingdom. We shall therefore speak of them here 
only in the briefest manner, simply indicating the connection of 
their several histories with the series of events which mark the 
advance of Rome to universal empire. 

The Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 b.c). — During the Hanni- 
balic W^ar, Phihp V. (III.) of Macedonia had aided the Cartha- 
ginians, or at least had entered into an alliance 
with them. He was now troubling the Greek 
cities which were under the protection of 
Rome. For these things the Roman Senate 
determined to punish him. An army under 
Flamininus was sent into Greece, and on the 
plains of Cynoscephalae, in Thessaly, the Roman PHitipTy'^f^Jl^edonia. 
legion demonstrated its superiority over the un- 
wieldy Macedonian phalanx by subjecting Philip to a most disas- 
trous defeat (197 b.c). The king was forced to give up all his 
conquests, and Rome extended her protectorate over Greece. 




268 



THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. 



The Battle of Magnesia (190 b.c). — Antiochus the Great of 
Syria had at this time not only overrun all Asia Minor, but had 
crossed the Hellespont into Europe, and was incent upon the 
conquest of Thrace and Greece. Rome, that could not enter- 
tain the idea of a rival empire upon the southern shores of the 
Mediterranean, could much less tolerate the establishment in the 
East of such a colossal kingdom as the ambition of Antiochus 
proposed to itself. Just as soon as intelligence was carried to 
Italy that the Syrian king was leading his army into Greece, the 
legions of the republic were set in motion. Some reverses caused 
Antiochus to .retreat in haste across the Hellespont into Asia, 
whither he was followed by the Romans, led by Scipio, a brother 
of Africanus. 

At Magnesia, Antiochus was overthrown, and a large part of Asia 
Minor fell into the hands of the Romans. Not yet prepared to 
maintain provinces so distant from the Tiber, the Senate conferred 
the new territory, with the exception of Lycia and Caria, which 
were given to the Rhodians, upon their friend and ally Eumenes, 
King of Pergamus (see p. 171). This " Kingdom of Asia," as it was 
called, was really nothing more than a dependency of Rome, and its 
nominal ruler only a puppet-king in the hands of the Roman Senate. 
Scipio enjoyed a magnificent triumph at Rome, and, in accord- 
ance with a custom that had now become popular with successful 
generals, erected a memorial of his deeds in his name by assuming 
the title of Asiaticus. 

The Battle of Pydna (168 b.c). — In a few years Macedonia, 
under the leadership of Perseus, son of 
Philip v., was again in arms and offering de- 
\ fiance to Rome ; but in the year 168 B.C. the 
\\ Roman consul vEmilius Paulus crushed the 
jj Macedonian power forever upon the mem- 
orable field of Pydna. This was one of 
the decisive battles fought by the Romans 
in their struggle for the dominion of the 
PERSEUS, of Macedonia, world. The last great power in the East 




DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH. 269 

was here broken. The Roman Senate was henceforth recognized 
by the whole civihzed world as the source and fountain of supreme 
political wisdom and power. We shall have yet to record many 
campaigns of the Roman legions ; but these were efforts to sup- 
press revolt among dependent or semi-vassal states, or were strug- 
gles with barbarian tribes that skirted the Roman dominions. 

The Destruction of Corinth (146 b.c). — Barely twenty years 
had passed after the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy 
before the cities and states that formed the Achaean League (see 
p. 175) were goaded to revolt by the injustice of their Roman pro- 
tectors. "In the year 146 B.C. the consul Mummius signalized tne 
suppression of the rebellion by the complete destruction of the 
brilliant city of Corinth, the "eye of Hellas," as the ancient poets 
were fond of calling it. This fair capital, the most beautiful and 
renowned of all the cities of Greece after the fall of Athens, was 
sacked, and razed to the ground. Much of the booty was sold on 
the spot at public auction. Numerous works of art, — rare paint- 
ings and sculptures, — with which the city was crowded, were car- 
ried off to Italy. " Never before or after," says Long, " was such 
a display of the wonders of Grecian art carried in triumphal pro- 
cession through the streets of Rome." 

The Third Punic War. 

"Carthage must be destroyed." — The same year that Rome 
destroyed Corinth (146 b.c), she also blotted her great rival Car- 
thage from the face of the earth. It will be recalled that one of 
the conditions imposed upon the last-named city at the close of 
the Second Punic War was that she should, under no circum- 
stances, engage in any war without the permission of the Roman 
Senate. Taking advantage of the helpless condition of Carthage, 
Masinissa, King of Numidia, began to make depredations upon 
her territories. She appealed to Rome for protection. The en- 
voys sent to Africa by the Senate to settle the dispute, unfairly 
adjudged every case in favor of the robber Masinissa. In this way 
Carthage was deprived of her lands and towns. 



270 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. 

Chief of one of the embassies sent out was Marcus Cato the 
Censor. When he saw the prosperity of Carthage, — her immense 
trade, which crowded her harbor with ships, and the country for 
miles back of the city a beautiful landscape of gardens and villas, 
— he was amazed at the growing power and wealth of the city, 
and returned home convinced that the safety of Rome demanded 
the destruction of her rival. Never afterwards did he address the 
Romans, no matter upon what subject, but he always ended with 
the words, " Carthage must be destroyed" {delenda est Carthago). 

Eoman Perfidy. — A pretext for the accompKshment of the 
hateful work was not long wanting. In 150 b.c. the Carthagin- 
ians, when Masinissa made another attack upon their territory, 
instead of calling upon Rome, from which source the past had 
convinced them they could hope for neither aid nor justice, 
gathered an army, and resolved to defend themselves. Their 
forces, however, were defeated by the Numidians, and sent be- 
neath the yoke. 

In entering upon this war without the consent of Rome, Car- 
thage had broken the conditions of the last treaty. The Cartha- 
ginian Senate, in great anxiety, now sent an embassy to Italy to 
offer any reparation the Romans might demand. They were told 
that if they would give three hundred hostages, members of the 
noblest Carthaginian families, the independence of their city 
should be respected. They eagerly comphed with this demand. 
But no sooner were these in the hands of the Romans than the 
consular armies, numbering eighty thousand men, secured against 
attack by the hostages so perfidiously drawn from the Carthagin- 
ians, crossed from Sicily into Africa, and disembarked at Utica, 
only ten miles from Carthage. 

The Carthaginians were now commanded to give up all their 
arms ; still hoping to win their enemy to clemency, they complied 
with this demand also. Then the consuls made known the final 
decree of the Roman Senate — " That Carthage must be de- 
stroyed, but that the inhabitants might build a new city, provided 
it were located ten miles from the coast." 



PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 271 

When this resolution of the Senate was announced to the Car- 
thaginians, and they reahzed the baseness and perfidy of their 
enemy, a cry of indignation and despair burst from the be- 
trayed city. 

The Carthaginians prepare to defend their City. — It was re- 
solved to resist to the bitter end the execution of the cruel decree. 
The gates of the city were closed. Men, women, and children 
set to work and labored day and night manufacturing arms. The 
entire city was converted into one great workshop. The utensils 
of the home and the sacred vessels of the temples, statues, and 
vases were melted down for weapons. Material was torn from 
the buildings of the city for the construction of military engines. 
The women cut off their hair and braided it into strings for the 
catapults. By such labor, and through such means, the city was 
soon put in a state to withstand a siege. 

When the Romans advanced to take possession of the place, 
they were astonished to find the people they had just treacher- 
ously disarmed, with weapons in their hands, manning the walls of 
their capital, and ready to bid them defiance. 

The Destruction of Carthage. — It is impossible for us here to 
give the circumstances of the siege of Carthage. For four years 
the city held out against the Roman army. At length the consul 
Scipio ^'Emilianus succeeded in taking it by storm. When resist- 
ance ceased, only 50,000 men, women, and children, out of a 
population of 700,000, remained to be made prisoners. The city 
was fired, and for seventeen days the space within the walls was a 
sea of flames. Every trace of building which the fire could not 
destroy was levelled, a plough was driven over the site, and a 
dreadful curse invoked upon any one who should dare attempt to 
rebuild the city. 

Such was the hard fate of Carthage. It is said that Scipio, as 
he gazed upon the smouldering ruins, seemed to read in them the 
fate of Rome, and, bursting into tears, sadly repeated the lines of 
Homer : 



272 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. 

" The day shall come in which our sacred Troy, 
And Priam, and the people over whom 
Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish all." 

The Carthaginian territory in Africa was made into a Roman 
province, with Utica as the leading city ; and Roman civilization 
was spread rapidly, by means of traders and settlers, throughout 
the regions that lie between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea. 

War in Spain. 

Siege of Numantia. — It is fitting that the same chapter which 
narrates the destruction of Corinth in Greece, and the blotting- 
out of Carthage in Africa, should tell the story of the destruction 
of Numantia in Spain. 

The expulsion of the Carthaginians from the Spanish peninsula 
really gave Rome the control of only a small part of that country. 
The war-like native tribes — the Celtiberians and Lusitanians — 
of the North and the West were ready stubbornly to dispute with 
the new-comers the possession of the soil. 

The war gathered about Numantia, the siege of which was 
brought to a close by Scipio ^^milianus, the conqueror of Car- 
thage. Before the surrender of the place, almost all the inhab- 
itants had met death, either in defence of the walls, or by 
deliberate suicide. The miserable remnant which the ravages of 
battle, famine, pestilence, and despair had left alive were sold into 
slavery, and the city was levelled to the ground (133 B.C.). 

The capture of Numantia was considered quite as great an 
achievement as the taking of Carthage. Scipio celebrated an- 
other triumph at Rome, and to his surname Africanus, which he 
had received for his achievements in Africa, added that of Numan- 
tinus. Spain became a favorite resort of Roman merchants, and 
many colonies were established in different parts of the country. 
As a result of this great influx of Italians, the laws, manners, cus- 
toms, language, and religion of the conquerors were introduced 
everywhere, and the peninsula became rapidly Romanized. 



THE SERVILE WAR IN ITALY. 273 



CHAPTER XXYIT. 

THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

We have now traced the growth of the power of republican 
Rome, as through two centuries and more of conquest she has 
extended her authority, first throughout Italy, and then over almost 
all the countries that border upon the Mediterranean. It must be 
our less pleasant task now to follow the decKning fortunes of the 
republic through the last century of its existence. We shall here 
learn that wars waged for spoils and dominion are in the end more 
ruinous, if possible, to the conqueror than to the conquered. 

The Servile War in Sicily (134-132 b.c). — With the open- 
ing of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in Sicily 
between masters and slaves — or what is known as " The First Ser- 
vile War." The condition of affairs in that island was the legiti- 
mate result of the Roman system of slavery. The captives taken 
in war were usually sold into servitude. The great number of 
prisoners furnished by the numerous conquests of the Romans 
caused slaves to become a drug in the slave-markets of the Ro- 
man world. They were so cheap that masters found it more 
profitable to wear their slaves out by a few years of unmercifully 
hard labor, and then to buy others, than to preserve their lives for 
a longer period by more humane treatment. In case of sickness, 
they were left to die without attention, as the expense of nursing 
exceeded the cost of new purchases. Some Sicilian estates were 
worked by as many as 20,000 slaves. That each owner might 
know his own, the poor creatures were branded like cattle. What 
makes all this the more revolting is the fact that many of these 
slaves were in every way the peers of their owners, and often were 



274 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

their superiors. The fortunes of war alone had made one servant 
and the other master. 

The wretched condition of these slaves and the cruelty of their 
masters at last drove them to revolt. The insurrection spread 
throughout the island, until 200,000 slaves were in arms, and in 
possession of many of the strongholds of the country. They de- 
feated four Roman armies sent against them, and for three years 
defied the power of Rome. Finally, however, in the year 132 B.C., 
the revolt was crushed, and peace was restored to the distracted 
island.' 

The Public Lands. — In Italy itself affairs were in a scarcely 
less wretched condition than in Sicily. When the different states 
of the peninsula were subjugated, large portions of the conquered 
territory had become public land {ager publicus) ; for upon the 
subjugation of a state Rome never left to the conquered people 
more than two- thirds of their lands, and often not so much as 
this. The land appropriated was disposed of at public sale, leased 
at low rentals, allotted to discharged soldiers, or allowed to lie 
unused.^ 

Now, it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part of the 
public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. They alone 
had the capital necessary to stock and work them to advantage ; 
hence the possessions of the small proprietors were gradually 
absorbed by the large landholders. These great proprietors, also, 
disregarding a law which forbade any person to hold more than 
five hundred jugera of land, held many times that amount. Al- 
most all the lands of Italy, about the beginning of the first century 
B.C., are said to have been held by not more than two thousand 

^ In the year 102 B.C. another insurrection of the slaves broke out in the 
island, which it required three years to quell. This last revolt is known as 
" The Second Servile War." 

^ These land matters may be made plain by a reference to the public lands 
of the United States. The troul)les in Ireland between the land-owners and 
their tenants will also serve to illustrate the agrarian disturbances in ancient 
Rome. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 275 

persons ; for the large proprietors, besides the lands they had se- 
cured by purchase from the government, or had wrested from the 
smaller farmers, claimed enormous tracts to which they had only 
a squatter's title. So long had they been left in undisturbed 
possession of these government lands that they had come to look 
upon them as absolutely their own. In many cases, feeling secure 
through great lapse of time, — the lands having been handed down 
through many generations, — the owners had expended large sums 
in their improvement, and now resisted as very unjust every effort 
to dispossess them of their hereditary estates. Money-lenders, 
too, had, in many instances, made loans upon these lands, and 
they naturally sided with the owners in their opposition to all 
efforts to disturb the titles. 

These wealthy " possessors " employed slave rather than free 
labor, as they found it more profitable ; and so the poorer 
Romans, left without employment, crowded into the cities, es- 
pecially congregating at Rome, where they lived in vicious in- 
dolence. The proprietors also found it to their interest to raise 
stock rather than to cultivate the soil. All Italy became a great 
sheep-pasture. 

Thus, largely through the workings of the public land system, 
the Roman people had become divided into two great classes, 
which are variously designated as the Rich and the Poor, the Pos- 
sessors and the Non-Possessors, the Optimates (the '' Best "), and 
the Populares (the "People"). We hear nothing more of patri- 
cians and plebeians. As one expresses it, " Rome had become a 
commonwealth of millionaires and beggars." 

I'or many years before and after the period at which we have 
now arrived, a bitter struggle was carried on between these two 
classes ; just such a contest as we have seen waged between the 
nobility and the commonalty in the earher history of Rome. The 
most instructive portion of the story of the Roman republic is 
found in the records of this later struggle. The misery of the 
great masses naturally led to constant agitation at the capital. 
Popular leaders introduced bill after bill into the Senate, and 



276 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

brought measure after measure before the assembhes of the peo- 
ple, all aiming at the redistribution of the public lands and the 
correction of existing abuses. 

The Reforms of the Gracchi. — The most noted champions of 
the cause of the poorer classes against the rich and powerful were 
Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. These reformers are reckoned 
among the most popular orators that Rome ever produced. 
They eloquently voiced the wrongs of the people. Said Tiberius, 
*^ You are called ' lords of the earth ' without possessing a single 
clod to call your own." The people made him tribune ; and in 
that position he secured the passage of a law for the redistribution 
of the public lands, which gave some relief. It took away from 
Possessors without sons all the land they held over five hundred 
jugera; Possessors with one son might hold seven hundred and 
fifty jugera, and those with two sons one thousand. 

At the end of his term of office, Tiberius stood a second time 
for the tribunate. The nobles combined to defeat him. Fore- 
seeing that he would not be re-elected, Tiberius resolved to use 
force upon the day of voting. His partisans were overpowered, 
and he and three hundred of his followers were killed in the 
Forum, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber (133 B.C.). This 
was the first time that the Roman Forum had witnessed such a 
scene of violence and crime. 

Caius Gracchus, the younger brother of Tiberius, now assumed 
the position made vacant by the death of Tiberius. It is related 
that Caius had a dream in which the spirit of his brother seemed 
to address him thus : " Caius, why do you linger ? There is no 
escape : one life for both of us, and one death in defence of the 
people, is our fate." The dream came true. Caius was chosen 
tribune in 123 B.C. He secured the passage of grain-laws which 
provided that grain should be sold to the poor from pubHc grana- 
ries, at half its value or less. This was a very unwise and perni- 
cious measure. It was not long before grain was distributed free 
to all applicants ; and a considerable portion of the population of 
the capital were living in vicious indolence and feeding at the 
pubhc crib. 



THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA. 277 

Caius proposed other measures in the interest of the people, 
which were bitterly opposed by the Optimates ; and the two orders 
at last came into collision. Caius sought death by a friendly sword 
(i2i B.C.), and three thousand of his adherents were massacred. 
The consul offered for the head of Caius its weight in gold. 
" This is the first instance in Roman history of head-money being 
offered and paid, but it was not the last " (Long). 

The people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs to their cause, 
and their memory was preserved by statues in the public square. 
To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was erected, simply bear- 
ing the inscription, "The Mother of the Gracchi." 

The War with Jugurtha (111-106 b.c). — After the death 
of the Gracchi there seemed no one left to resist the heartless 
oppressions and to denounce the scandalous extravagances of the 
aristocratic party. Many of the laws of the Gracchi respecting 
the public lands were annulled. Italy fell again into the hands of 
a few over-rich land-owners. The provinces were plundered by 
the Roman governors, who squandered their ill-gotten wealth at 
the capital. The votes of senators and the decisions of judges, 
the offices at Rome and the places in the provinces — everything 
pertaining to the government had its price, and was bought and 
sold like merchandise. Affairs in Africa at this time illustrate how 
Roman virtue and integrity had declined since Fabricius indig- 
nantly refused the gold of Pyrrhus. 

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, had seized all that country, having 
put to death the rightful rulers of different provinces of the region, 
who had been confirmed in their possessions by the Romans at 
the close of the Punic wars. Commissioners sent from Rome to 
look into the matter were bribed by Jugurtha. Even the consul 
Bestia, who had been sent into Africa with an army to punish the 
insolent usurper, sold himself to the robber. An investigation was 
ordered ; but many prominent officials at Rome were implicated 
in the offences, and the matter was hushed up with money. The 
venality of the Romans disgusted even Jugurtha, who exclaimed, 
" O venal city, thou wouldst sell thyself if thou couldst find a 
purchaser ! " 



278 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

In the year io6 B.C. the war against Jugurtha was brought to a 
close by Caius Mariiis, a man who had risen to the consulship 
from the lowest ranks of the people. Under him fought a young 
nobleman named Sulla, of whom we shall hear much hereafter. 
Marius celebrated a grand triumph at Rome. Jugurtha, after hav- 
ing graced the triumphal procession, was thrown into the Mamer- 
tine dungeon, beneath the Capitoline, where he died of starvation. 

Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones. — The war was not yet 
ended in Africa before terrible tidings came to Rome from the 
north. Two mighty nations of •'' horrible barbarians," three hun- 
dred thousand strong in fighting-men, coming whence no one 
could tell, had invaded, and were now desolating, the Roman 
provinces of Gaul, and might any moment cross the Alps and 
pour down into Italy. 

The mysterious invaders proved to be two Germanic tribes, the 
Teutones and Cimbri, the vanguard of that great German migra- 
tion which was destined to change the face and history of Europe. 
These intruders were seeking new homes. They carried with 
them, in rude wagons, all their property, their wives, and their 
children. The Celtic tribes of Gaul were no match for the new- 
comers, and fled before them as they advanced. Several Roman 
armies beyond the Alps were cut to pieces. The terror at Rome 
was only equalled by that occasioned by the invasion of the Gauls 
two centuries before. The Gauls were terrible enough ; but now 
the conquerors of the Gauls were coming. 

Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was looked to by all as the 
only man who could save the state in this crisis. Accompanied 
by Sulla as one of his most skilful lieutenants, Marius hastened 
into Northern Italy. The barbarians had divided into two bands. 
The Cimbri were to cross the Eastern Alps, and join in the valley 
of the Po the Teutones, who were to force the defiles of the 
Western, or Maritime Alps. Marius determined to prevent the 
union of the barbarians, and to crush each band separately. 

Anticipating the march of the Teutones, he hurried over the 
Alps into Gaul, and falling upon them at a favorable moment (at 



THE SOCIAL WAR. 279 

Aquae Sextice, not far from Marseilles, 102 b.c), almost annihilated 
the entire host. Two hundred thousand barbarians are said to 
have been slain. Marius now recrossed the Alps, and, after visit- 
ing Rome, hastened to meet the Cimbri, who were entering the 
northeastern corner of Italy. He was not a day too soon. Al- 
ready the barbarians had defeated the Roman army under the 
nobleman Catulus, and were ravaging the rich plains of the Po. 
The Cimbri, unconscious of the fate of the Teutones, sent an em- 
bassy to Marius, to demand that they and their kinsmen should be 
given lands in Italy. Marius sent back in reply, " The Teutones 
have got all the land they need on the other side of the Alps." 
The devoted Cimbri were soon to have all they needed on this side, 

A terrible battle almost immediately followed at Vercellae (loi 
B.C.). The barbarians were drawn up in an enormous hollow 
square, the men forming the outer ranks being fastened together 
with chains, to prevent the lines being broken. This proved their 
ruin. More than 100.000 were killed and 60,000 taken prisoners 
to be sold as slaves in the Roman markets. Marius was hailed as 
the " Saviour of his Country." 

" The forlorn-hope of the German migration had performed its 
duty ; the homeless people of the Cimbri and their comrades 
were no more" (Mommsen). Their kinsmen yet behind the 
Danube and the Rhine were destined to exact a terrible revenge 
for their slaughter. 

The Social, or Marsic War (91-89 b.c). — Scarcely was the 
danger of the barbarian invasion past, before Rome was threatened 
by another and greater evil arising within her own borders. i\t 
this time all the free inhabitants of Italy were embraced in three 
classes, — Roman citizens, Lafi7is, and Italian allies. The Roman 
citizens included the inhabitants of the capital and of the various 
Roman colonies planted in different parts of the peninsula (see p. 
246, note), besides the people of a number of towns called ??wni- 
cipia ; the Latins were the inhabitants of the Latin colonies (see 
p. 246, note) ; the Italian alhes {socii) included the various subju- 
s^ated races of Ttalv. 



280 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

The Social, or Marsic War (as it is often called on account of 
the prominent part taken in the insurrection by the warlike Mar- 
sians) was a struggle that arose from the demands of the Italian 
allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship, from which they 
were wholly excluded. Their demands were stubbornly resisted 
by both the aristocratic and the popular party at Rome. Some, 
however, recognized the justice of these claims of the Italians. 
The tribune Livius Drusus championed their cause, but he was 
killed by an assassin. The Italians now flew to arms. They 
determined upon the establishment of a rival state. A town 
called Corfinium, among the Apennines, was chosen as the capital 
of the new republic, and its name changed to Italica. Thus, in 
a single day, almost all Italy south of the Rubicon was lost to 
Rome. The Etrurians, the Umbrians, the Campanians, the Latins, 

and some of the Greek cities were the only 

states that remained faithful. 

The greatness of the danger aroused all 

the old Roman courage and patriotism. 

Aristocrats and democrats hushed their 
COIN OF THE ITALIAN quarrcls, and fought bravely side by side 
CONFEDERACY. for the endangered Hfe of the republic. 

(TheSabellianBull^goringthe ^j^^ ^^^ j^^^^^ ^j^^.^^ ^^^^^^ Ym^}^\y Rome 

prudently extended the right of suffrage to 
the Latins, Etruscans, and Umbrians, who had so far remained 
true to her, but now began to show signs of wavering in their 
loyalty. Shortly afterwards she offered the same to all Italians 
who should lay down their arms within sixty days. This tardy 
concession to the just demands of the Italians virtually ended 
the war. It had been extremely disastrous to the republic. 
Hundreds of thousands of hves had been lost, many towns 
had been depopulated, and vast tracts of the country made des- 
olate by those ravages that never fail to characterize civil conten- 
tions. 

In after-years, under the empire, the rights of Roman citizen- 
ship, which the most of the Italians had now so hardly won, were 




PVAJ^ OF MARIUS AND SULLA. 



281 



extended to all the free inhabitants of the various provinces, 
beyond the confines of Italy (see p. 329). 

The Civil War of Marius and Sulla. — The Social War was 
not yet ended when a formidable enemy appeared in the East. 
Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus (see p. 170, note), taking 
advantage of the distracted condition of the republic, had en- 
croached upon the Roman provinces in Asia Minor, and had 
caused a general massacre of the ItaHan traders and residents in 
that country. The number of victims of this wholesale slaughter 
has been variously estimated at from 80,000 to 150,000. The 
Roman Senate instantly declared war. 

A contest straightway arose between Marius and Sulla for the 
command of the forces. The sword settled the dispute. Sulla, 
at the head of the legions he commanded, marched upon Rome, 
entered the gates, and " for the first time in the annals of the city 
a Roman army encamped within the walls." The party of Marius 
was defeated, and he and ten of his companions were proscribed. 
Marius escaped and fled to Africa ; Sulla 
embarked with the legions to meet Mith- 
ridates in the East (87 B.C.). 

The Wanderings of Marius : His Re- 
turn to Italy. — Leaving Sulla to carry 
on the Mithridatic War, we must first 
follow the fortunes of the outlawed Ma- 
rius. The ship in which he embarked 
for Africa was driven back upon the 
Italian coast at Circeii, and he was cap- 
tured. A Cimbrian slave was sent to 
despatch him in prison. The cell where 
Marius lay was dark, and the eyes of the 
old soldier " seemed to flash fire." As 

the slave advanced, Marius shouted, " Man, do you dare to kill 
Caius Marius?" The frightened slave dropped his sword, and 
fled from the chamber, half dead with fear. 

A better feeling now took possession of the captors of Marius, 




MARIUS. 



282 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

and they resolved that the blood of the " Saviour of Italy " should 
not be upon their hands. They put him aboard a vessel, which 
bore him and his friends to an island just off the coast of Africa. 
When he attempted to set foot upon the mainland near Carthage, 
Sextius, the Roman governor of the province, sent a messenger to 
forbid him to land. The legend says that the old general, almost 
choking with indignation, only answered, " Go, tell your master, 
that you have seen Marius a fugitive sitting amidst the rums of 
Carthage." 

A successful move of his friends at Rome brought Marius back 
to the capital. He now took a terrible revenge upon his enemies. 
The consul Octavius was assassinated, and his head set up in front 
of the Rostrum. Never before had such a thing been seen at 
Rome — a consul's head exposed to the public gaze. The sena- 
tors, equestrians, and leaders of the Optimate party fled from the 
capital. For five days and nights a merciless slaughter was kept 
up. The life of every man in the capital was in the hands of the 
revengeful Marius. If he refused to return the greeting of any 
citizen, that sealed his fate : he was instantly despatched . by the 
soldiers who awaited the dictator's nod. The bodies of the vic- 
tims lay unburied in the streets. Sulla's house was torn down, and 
he himself declared a public enemy. 

Rumors were now spread that Sulla, having overthrown Mithri- 
dates, was about to set out on his return with his victorious legions. 
He would surely exact speedy and terrible vengeance. Marius, 
old and enfeebled by the hardships of many campaigns, seemed 
to shrink from again facing his hated rival. He plunged into dis- 
sipation to drown his remorse and gloomy forebodings, and died 
in his seventy-first year (86 b.c). 

Sulla and the Mithridatic War. — When Sulla left Italy with 
his legions for the East, he knew very well that his enemies would 
have their own way in Italy during his absence ; but he also knew 
that, if successful in his campaign against Mithridates, he could 
easily regain Italy, and wrest the government from the hands of 
the Marian party. 



THE PROSCRIPTIONS OF SUI.LA. 



283 




SULLA. 



We can here take space to give simply the results of Sulla's 
campaigns in the East. After driving the army of Mithridates out 
of Greece, Sulla crossed the Hellespont, and forced the king to 
sue for peace. He gave up his conquered territory, surrendered 
his war ships, and paid a large indemnity to 
cover the expenses of the war. 

With the Mithridatic War ended, Sulla 
wrote to the Senate, saying that he was now 
coming to take vengeance upon the Marian 
party, — his own and the republic's foes. 

The terror and consternation produced at 
Rome by this letter were increased by the 
accidental burning of the Capitol. The 
Sibylline books, which held the secrets of 
the fate of Rome, were consumed. Such an 
event, it was believed, could only foreshadow 
the most direful calamities to the state. 

The Proscriptions of Sulla. — The returning army from the 
East landed in Italy. With his veteran legions at his back, Sulla 
marched into Rome with all the powers of a dictator. The leaders 
of the Marian party were proscribed, rewards were offered for 
their heads, and their property was confiscated. Sulla was im- 
plored to make out a list of those he designed to put to death, 
that those he intended to spare might be relieved of the terrible 
suspense in which all were now held. He made out a list of 
eighty, which was attached to the Rostrum. The people mur- 
mured at the length of the roll. In a few days it was extended 
to over three hundred, and grew rapidly, until it included the 
names of thousands of the best citizens of Italy. Hundreds were 
murdered, not for any offence, but because some favorites of Sulla 
coveted their estates. A wealthy noble coming into the Forum, 
and reading his own name in the hst of the proscribed, exclaimed, 
" Alas ! my villa has proved my ruin." The infamous Catiline, by 
having the name of a brother placed upon the fatal roll, secured 
his property. Juhus Caesar, at this time a mere boy of eighteen, 



284 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

was proscribed on account of his relationship to Marius ; but, 
upon the intercession of friends, Sulla spared him : as he did so, 
however, he said warningly, and, as the event proved, prophetically, 
" There is in that boy many a Marius." 

Senators, knights, and wealthy land-owners fell by hundreds 
and by thousands ; but the poor Italians who had sided with the 
Marian party were simply slaughtered by tens of thousands. Nor 
did the provinces escape. In Sicily, Spain, and Africa the enemies 
of the dictator were hunted and exterminated like noxious animals. 
It is estimated that the civil war of Marius and Sulla cost the re- 
public over one hundred and fifty thousand lives. 

When Sulla had sated his revenge, he celebrated a splendid 
triumph at Rome, and the Senate enacted a law declaring all that 
he had done legal and right, caused to be erected in the Forum a 
gilded equestrian statue of the dictator, which bore the legend, 
"To Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Commander Beloved by Fortune," 
and made him dictator for life. Sulla used his position and influ- 
ence in recasting the constitution in the interest of the aristocratic 
party. After enjoying the unlimited power of an Asiatic despot 
for three years, he suddenly resigned the dictatorship, and retired 
to his villa at Puteoli, where he gave himself up to the grossest 
dissipations. He died the year following his abdication (78 B.C.). 



POMPEY THE GREAT. 285 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC (concluded). 

(133-131 B.C.) 

Pompey the Great in Spain. — The fires of the Civil War, 
though quenched in Italy, were still smouldering in Spain. Serto- 
rius, an adherent of Marius, had there stirred up the martial tribes 
of Lusitania, and incited a general revolt against the power of 
the aristocratic government at Rome. Cnseus Pompey, a rising 
young leader of the oligarchy, upon whom the title of Great had 
already been conferred as a reward for crushing the Marian party 
in Sicily and Africa, was sent into Spain to perform a similar ser- 
vice there. 

For several years the war was carried on with varying fortunes. 
At times the power of Rome in the peninsula seemed on the verge 
of utter extinction. Finally, the brave Sertorius was assassinated, 
and then the whole of Spain was quickly regained. Pompey 
boasted of having forced the gates of more than eight hundred 
cities in Spain and Southern Gaul. Throughout all the conquered 
regions he established military colonies, and reorganized the local 
governments, putting in power those who would be, not only 
friends and allies of the Roman state, but also his own personal 
adherents. How he used these men as instruments of his ambi- 
tion, we shall learn a little later. 

Spartacus : War of the Gladiators„ — While Pompey was sub- 
duing the Marian faction in Spain, a new danger broke out in the 
midst of Italy. Gladiatorial combats had become, at this time, 
the favorite sport of the amphitheatre. At Capua was a sort of 
training-school, from which skilled fighters were hired out for pub- 
lic or private entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian 
slave, known by the name of Spartacus, who incited his compan- 



286 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN RF.PUBLIC. 

ions to revolt. The insurgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius, and 
made that their stronghold. There they were joined by gladiators 
from other schools, and by slaves and discontented men from 
every quarter. Some slight successes enabled them to arm them- 
selves with the weapons of their enemies. Their number at length 
increased to one hundred thousand men. For three years they 
defied the power of Rome, and even gained control of the larger 
part of Southern Italy. Four Roman armies sent against them 
were cut to pieces. But at length Spartacus himself was slain, and 
the insurgents were crushed. 

The rebellion was punished with Roman severity. The slaves 
that had taken part in the revolt were hunted through the moun- 
tains and forests, and exterminated like dangerous beasts. The 
Appian Way was lined with six thousand crosses, bearing aloft as 
many bodies — a terrible warning of the fate awaiting slaves that 
should dare to strike for freedom. 

The Abuses of Verres. — Terrible as was the state of society in 
Italy, still worse was the condition of affairs outside the peninsula. 
At first the rule of the Roman governors in the provinces, though 
severe, was honest and prudent. But during the period of profli- 
gacy and corruption upon which we have now entered, the admin- 
istration of these foreign possessions was shamefully dishonest and 
incredibly cruel and rapacious. The prosecution of Verres, the 
proprsetor of Sicily, exposed the scandalous rule of the oligarchy, 
into whose hands the government had fallen. For three years 
Verres plundered and ravaged that island with impunity. He sold 
all the ofiices, and all his decisions as judge. He demanded of 
the farmers the greater part of their crops, which he sold, to swell 
his already enormous fortune. Agriculture was thus ruined, and 
the farms were abandoned. Verres had a taste for art, and when 
on his tours through the island confiscated gems, vases, statues, 
paintings, and other things that struck his fancy, whether in tem- 
ples or private dwellings. He even caused a Roman trader, for a 
slight oflence, to be crucified, " the cross being set on the beach 



THE MEDITERRAXEAX PIRATES. 287 

within sight of Italy, that he might address to his native shores the 
ineffectual cry ' I am a Roman citizen.' " 

Verres could not be called to account while in office ; and it 
was doubtful whether, after the end of his term, he could be con- 
victed, so corrupt and venal had become the members of the 
Senate, before whom all such offenders must be tried. Indeed, 
Verres himself openly boasted that he intended two thirds of his 
gains for his judges and lawyers, while the remaining one third 
would satisfy himself. 

At length, after Sicily had come to look as though it had been 
ravaged by barbarian conquerors, the infamous robber was im- 
peached. The prosecutor was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the briUiant 
orator, who was at this time just rising into prominence at Rome. 
The storm of indignation raised by the developments of the trial 
caused Verres to flee into exile to Massiha, whither he took with 
him much of his ill-gotten wealth. 

War with the Mediterranean Pirates (66 b.c). — The Roman 
republic was now threatened by a new danger from the sea. The 
Mediterranean was swarming with pirates. Roman conquests in 
Africa, Spain, and especially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused 
thousands of adventurous spirits from those maritime countries to 
flee to their ships, and seek a livelihood by preying upon the 
commerce of the seas. The cruelty and extortions of the Roman 
governors had also driven large numbers to the same course of 
life. These corsairs had banded themselves into a sort of govern- 
ment, and held possession of numerous strongholds — four hun- 
dred, it is said — in Cilicia, Crete, and other countries. With a 
full thousand swift ships they scoured the waters of the Mediterra- 
nean, so that no merchantman could spread her sails in safety. 
They formed a floating empire, which Michelet calls " a wander- 
ing Carthage, which no one knew where to seize, and which floated 
from Spain to Asia." 

These buccaneers, the Vikings of the South, made descents 
upon the coast everywhere, plundered villas and temples, at- 
tacked and captured cities, and sold the inhabitants as slaves in 



288 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

the various slave-markets of the Roman world. They carried off 
merchants and magistrates from the Appian Way itself, and held 
them for ransom. At last the grain-ships of Sicily and Africa were 
intercepted, and Rome was threatened with the alternative of star- 
vation or the paying of an enormous ransom. 

The Romans now bestirred themselves. Pompey was invested 
with dictatorial power for three years over the Mediterranean and 
all its coasts for fifty miles inland. An armament of five hundred 
ships and one hundred thousand men was intrusted to his com- 
mand. The great general acted with his characteristic energy. 
Within forty days he had swept the pirates from the Western 
Mediterranean, and in forty-nine more hunted them from all the 
waters east of Italy, captured their strongholds in Cilicia, and 
settled the twenty thousand prisoners that fell into his hands in 
various colonies in Asia Minor and Greece. Pompey's vigorous 
and successful conduct of this campaign against the pirates gained 
him great honor and reputation. 

Pompey and the Mithridatic War. — In the very year that 
Pompey suppressed the pirates (66 B.C.), he was called to under- 
take a more difficult task. Mithridates the Great, led on by his 
ambition and encouraged by the discontent created throughout the 
Eastern provinces by Roman rapacity and misrule, was again in 
arms against Rome. He had stirred almost all Asia Minor to 
revolt. The management of the war was eventually intrusted to 
Pompey, whose success in the war of the pirates had aroused 
unbounded enthusiasm for him. 

In a great battle in Lesser Armenia, Pompey almost annihilated 
the army of Mithridates. The king fled from the field, and, after 
seeking in vain for a refuge in Asia Minor, sought an asylum be- 
yond the Caucasus Mountains, whose bleak barriers interposed 
their friendly shield between him and his pursuers. Desisting from 
the pursuit, Pompey turned south and conquered Syria, Phoe- 
nicia, and Coele-Syria, which countries he erected into a Roman 
province. Still pushing southward, the conqueror entered Pales- 
tine, and after a short siege captured Jerusalem (63 b.c). 



POMPEY'S TRIUMPH. 



289 




MITHRIDATES Vi. 
(The Great.) 



While Pompey was thus engaged, Mithridates was straining 
every energy to raise an army among the Scythian tribes with 
which to carry out a most daring project. 
He proposed to cross Europe and fall 
upon Italy from the north. A revolt on 
the part of his son Pharnaces ruined all 
his plans and hopes ; and the disappointed 
monarch, to avoid falling into the hands of 
the Romans, took his own life {(y^ B.C.). 
His death removed one of the most for- 
midable enemies that Rome had ever 
encountered. Hamilcar, Hannibal, and 
Mithridates were the three great names 
that the Romans always pronounced with respect and dread. 

Pompey's Triumph. — After regulating the affairs of the different 
states and provinces in the East, Pompey set out on his return to 
Rome, where he enjoyed such a triumph as never before had been 
seen since Rome had become a city. The spoils of all the East 
were borne in the procession; 322 princes walked as captives 
before the triumphal chariot of the conqueror ; legends upon the 
banners proclaimed that he had conquered 21 kings, captured 
1000 strongholds, 900 towns, and 800 ships, and subjugated more 
than 12,000,000 people ; and that he had put in the treasury 
more than $25,000,000, besides doubling the regular revenues of 
the state. He boasted that three times he had triumphed, and 
each time for the conquest of a continent — first for Africa, then 
for Europe, and now for Asia, which completed the conquest of 
the world. 

The Conspiracy of Catiline. — While the legions were absent 
from Italy with Pompey in the East, a most daring conspiracy 
against the government was formed at Rome. Catiline, a ruined 
spendthrift, had gathered a large company of profligate young 
nobles, weighed do^^^l with debt and desperate like himself, and 
had deliberately planned to murder the consuls and the chief men 
of the state, and to plunder and burn the capital. The offices of 



290 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

the new government were to be divided among the conspirators. 
They depended upon receiving aid from Africa and Spain, and 
proposed to invite to their standard the gladiators in the various 
schools of Italy, as well as slaves and criminals. The proscrip- 
tions of Sulla were to be renewed, and all debts were to be 
cancelled. 

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to 
the consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately 
clothed the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula, 
that they should take care that the republic received no harm. 
The gladiators were secured ; the city walls were manned ; and at 
every point the capital and state were armed against the " invisible 
foe." Then in the Senate-chamber, with Catiline himself present, 
Cicero exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known 
as "The First Oration against Catiline." The senators shrank 
from the conspirator, and left the seats about him empty. After 
a feeble effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his 
guilt, and the cries of " traitor" and " parricide " from the senators, 
Catiline fled from the chamber, and hurried out of the city to the 
camp of his followers, in Etruria. In a desperate battle fought 
near Pistoria (52 B.C.), he was slain with many of his followers. 
His head was borne as a trophy to Rome. Cicero was hailed as 
the " Saviour of his Country." 

CsBsar, Crassus, and Pompey. — Although the conspiracy of 
Catihne had failed, it was very easy to foresee that the downfall 
of the Roman republic was near at hand. Indeed, from this time 
on only the name remains. The basis of the institutions of the 
republic — the old Roman virtue, integrity, patriotism, and faith 
in the gods — was gone, having been swept away by the tide of 
luxury, selfishness, and immorality produced by the long series 
of foreign conquests and robberies in which the Roman people 
had been engaged. The days of liberty at Rome were over. 
From this time forward the government was really in the hands 
of ambitious and popular leaders, or of corrupt combinations and 



THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 291 

" rings." Events gather about a few great names, and the annals 
of the repubhc become biographical rather than historical. 

There were now in the state three men — Caesar, Crassus, and 
Pompey — who were destined to shape affairs. Caius Julius Caesar 
was born in the year loo B.C. Although descended from an old 
patrician family, still his sympathies, and an early marriage to the 
daughter of Cinna, one of the adherents of Marius, led him early 
to identify himself with the Marian, or democratic party. In every 
way Caesar courted public favor. He lavished enormous sums 
upon pubHc games and tables. His debts are said to have 
amounted to 25,000,000 sesterces (^1,250,000). His popularity 
was unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had already 
made known to himself, as well as to others, his genius as a 
commander. 

Crassus belonged to the senatorial, or aristocratic party. He 
owed his influence to his enormous wealth, being one of the rich- 
est men in the Roman world. His property was estimated at 7100 
talents (about $7,500,000). 

With Pompey and his achievements we are already familiar. 
His influence throughout the Roman world was great ; for, in 
settling and reorganizing the many countries he subdued, he had 
always taken care to reconstruct them in his own interest, as well 
as in that of the repubhc. The offices, as we have seen, were 
filled with his friends and adherents (see p. 285). This patronage 
had secured for him incalculable authority in the provinces. His 
veteran legionaries, too, were naturally devoted to the general 
who had led them so often to victory. 

The First Triumvirate. — What is known as the First Trium- 
virate rested on the genius of Caesar, the wealth of Crassus, and 
the achievements of Pompey. It was a coalition or private ar- 
rangement entered into by these three men for the purpose of 
securing to themselves the control of public affairs. Each pledged 
himself to work for the interests of the others. Caesar was the 
manager of the "ring," and through the aid of his colleagues 
secured the consulship (59 B.C.). 



292 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

Caesar's Conquests in Gaul and Britain. — At the end of his 

consulship, the administration of the provinces of Cisalpine and 
Transalpine Gaul was assigned to Caesar. Already he was re- 
volving in his mind plans for seizing supreme power. Beyond 
the Alps the Gallic and Germanic tribes were in restless move- 
ment. He saw there a grand field for military exploits, which 
should gain for him such glory and prestige as, in other fields, 
had been won and were now enjoyed by Pompey. With this 
achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his interests, he 
might hope easily to attain that position at the head of affairs 
towards which his ambition was urging him. 

In the spring of 58 B.C. alarming intelhgence from beyond the 
Alps caused Caesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. 
Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against 
the various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his Com- 
me?ttaries Caesar himself has left us a faithful and graphic account 
of all the memorable marches, battles, and sieges that filled the 
years between 58 and 50 b.c. 

The year 55 b.c. marked two great achievements. Early in the 
spring of this year Caesar constructed a bridge across the Rhine, 
and led his legions against the Germans in their native woods 
and swamps. In the autumn of the same year he crossed, by 
means of hastily constructed ships, the channel that separates the 
mainland from Britain, and after maintaining a fobthold upon that 
island for two weeks withdrew his legions into Gaul for the winter. 
The following season he made another invasion of Britain ; but, 
after some encounters with the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the 
mainland without having established any permanent garrisons in 
the island. Almost one hundred years passed away before the 
natives of Britain were again molested by the Romans (see 
P-3I2). 

In the year 5 2 B.C., while Caesar was absent in Italy, a general 
revolt occurred among the Gallic tribes. It was a last desperate 
struggle for the recovery of their lost independence. Vercinget- 
prix, chief of the Arverni, was the leader of the insurrection. For 



RESULTS OF THE GALLIC WARS. 293 

a time it seemed as though the Romans would be driven from the 
country. But Csesar's despatch and mihtary genius saved the 
province to the repubhc. 

In his campaigns in Gaul, Caesar had subjugated three hundred 
tribes, captured eight hundred cities, and slain a million of bar- 
barians — one third of the entire population of the country. An- 
other third he had taken prisoners. Great enthusiasm was aroused 
at Rome by these victories. " Let the Alps now sink," exclaimed 
Cicero : " the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the barba- 
rians : they are now no longer needed." 

Results of the Gallic Wars. — ^The most important result of 
the Gallic wars of Caesar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The coun- 
try was opened to Roman traders and settlers, who carried with 
them the language, customs, and arts of Italy. 

Another result of the conquest was the checking of the migratory 
movements of the German tribes, which gave Graeco-Roman civil- 
ization time to become thoroughly rooted, not only in Gaul, but 
also in Spain and other lands. 

Rivalry between Caesar and Pompey : Caesar crosses the Rubi- 
con. — While Caesar was in the midst of his Transalpine ^ars, 
Crassus was leading an army against the Parthians, hoping to rival 
there the brilhant conquests of Caesar in Gaul. But his army was 
almost annihilated by the Parthian cavalry, and he himself was 
slain (54 B.C.). His captors, so it is said, poured molten gold 
down his throat, that he might be sated with the metal which he 
had so coveted during life. In the death of Crassus, Caesar lost his 
stanchest friend, one who had never failed him, and whose wealth 
had been freely used for his advancement. 

The world now belonged to Caesar and Pompey. That the in- 
satiable ambition of these two rivals should sooner or later bring 
them into collision was inevitable. Their alliance in the trium- 
virate was simply one of selfish convenience, not of friendship. 
While Caesar was carfying on his campaigns in Gaul, Pompey was 
at Rome watching jealously the growing reputation of his great 
rival. He strove, by a princely liberality, to win the affections of 



294 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

the common people. On the Field of Mars he erected an immense 
theatre with seats for forty thousand spectators. He gave magnifi- 
cent games, and set public tables ; and when the interest of the 
people in the sports of the Circus flagged, he entertained them 
with gladiatorial combats. In a similar manner Caesar strength- 
ened himself with the people for the struggle which he plainly 
foresaw. He sought in every way to ingratiate himself with the 
Gauls ; increased the pay of his soldiers ; conferred the privileges 
of Roman citizenship upon the inhabitants of different cities in his 
province ; and sent to Rome enormous sums of gold to be ex- 
pended in the erection of temples, theatres, and other public 
structures, and in the celebration of games and shows that should 
rival in magnificence those given by Pompey. 

The terrible condition of affairs at the capital favored the ambi- 
tion of Pompey. So selfish and corrupt were the members of the 
Senate, so dead to all virtue and to every sentiment of patriotism 
were the people, that even such patriots as Cato and Cicero saw 
no hope for the maintenance of the republic. The former favored 
the appointment of Pompey as sole consul for one year, which 
was about the same thing as making him dictator. " It is better," 
said Cato, " to choose a master than to wait for the tyrant whom 
anarchy will impose upon us." The '"tyrant" in his and every- 
body's mind was Caesar. 

Pompey now broke with Caesar, and attached* himself again to 
the old aristocratic party, which he had deserted for the alliance 
and promises of the triumvirate. The death at this time of his 
wife Julia, the daughter of Caesar, severed the bonds of relation- 
ship at the same moment that those of ostensible friendship were 
broken. 

The Senate, hostile to Caesar, now issued a decree that he should 
resign his office, and disband his Gallic legions by a stated day. 
The crisis had now come. Caesar ordered his legions to hasten 
from Gaul into Italy. Without waiting for their arrival, at the 
head of a small body of veterans that he had with him at Ravenna, 
he crossed the Rubicon, a little stream that marked the boundary 



PVAJ^ OF C^SAR AND POMPEY. 295 

of his province. This was a declaration of war. As he plunged 
into the river, he exclaimed, "The die is cast." 

The Civil War of Caesar and Pompey (49-48 b.c). — The 
bold movement of Caesar produced great consternation at Rome. 
Realizing the danger of delay, Caesar, without waiting for the 
Gallic legions to join him, marched southward. One city after 
another threw open its gates to him ; legion after legion went over 
to his standard. Pompey and the Senate hastened from Rome 
to Brundisium, and thence, with about twenty-five thousand men, 
fled across the Adriatic into Greece. Within sixty days^ Caesar 
made himself undisputed master of all Italy. 

Pompey and Caesar now controlled the Roman world. It was 
large, but not large enough for both these ambitious men. As to 
which was likely to become sole master, it were difficult for one 
watching events at that time to foresee. Caesar held Italy, Illyri- 
cum, and Gaul, with the resources of his own genius and the idol- 
atrous attachment of his soldiers ; Pompey controlled Spain, Africa, 
Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the provinces of Asia, with the pres- 
tige of his great name and the indefinite resources of the East. 

Caesar's first care was to pacify Italy. His moderation and pru- 
dence won all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the ter- 
rible scenes of the days of Marius and Sulla re-enacted. Caesar, 
however, soon gave assurance that life and property should be held 
sacred. He needed money; but, to avoid laying a tax upon the 
people, he asked for the treasure kept beneath the Capitol. Legend 
declared that this gold was the actual ransom-money which Bren- 
nus had demanded of the Romans, and which Camillus had saved 
by his timely appearance (see p. 241). It was esteemed sacred, 
and was never to be used save in case of another Gallic invasion. 
When Caesar attempted to get possession of the treasure, the trib- 
une Metellus prevented him ; but Caesar impatiently brushed him 
aside, saying, " The fear of a Gallic invasion is over : I have sub- 
dued the Gauls." 

With order restored in Italy, Caesar's next movement was to gain 
control of the wheat-fields of Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa. A single 



296 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

legion brought over Sardinia without resistance to the side of 
Csesar. Cato, the Ueutenant of Pompey, fled from before Curio 
out of Sicily. In Africa, however, the lieutenant of Csesar sus- 
tained a severe defeat, and the Pompeians held their ground there 
until the close of the war. Caesar, meanwhile, had subjugated 
Spain. In forty days the entire peninsula was brought under his 
authority. Massiha had ventured to close her gates against the 
conqueror ; but a brief siege forced the city to capitulate. Caesar 
was now free to turn his forces against Pompey in the East. 

The Battle of Pharsalus (48 b.c). — From Brundisium Caesar 
embarked his legions for Epirus. The armies of the rivals met 
upon the plains of Pharsalia, in Thessaly. The adherents of Pom- 
pey were so confident of an easy victory that they were already 
disputing about the offices at Rome, and were renting the most 
eligible houses fronting the public squares of the capital. The 
battle was at length joined. It proved Pompey 's Waterloo. His 
army was cut to pieces. He himself fled from the field, and es- 
caped to Egypt. Just as he was landing there, he was assassinated. 

The head of the great general was severed from his body ; and 
when Caesar, who was pressing after Pompey in hot pursuit, landed 
in Egypt, the bloody trophy was brought to him. He turned from 
the sight with generous tears. It was no longer the head of his 
rival, but of his old associate and son-in-law. He ordered the as- 
sassins to be executed, and directed that fitting obsequies should 
be performed over the body. 

Close of the Civil War. — Caesar was detained at Alexandria nine 
months in settling a dispute respecting the throne of Egypt. After 
a severe contest he overthrew the reigning Ptolemy, and secured 
the kingdom to the celebrated Cleopatra and a younger brother. 
Intelligence was now brought from Asia Minor that Pharnaces, son 
of Mithridates the Great, was inciting a revolt among the peoples 
of that region. Caesar met the Pontic king at Zela, defeated him, 
and in five days put an end to the war. His laconic message to 
the Senate, announcing his victory, is famous. It ran thus : Veni, 
vidi, vici, — " I came, I saw, I conquered." 



CESAR'S TRIUMPH. 291 

Caesar now hurried back to Italy, and thence proceeded to 
Africa, which the friends of the old republic had made their last 
chief rallying-place. At the great battle of Thapsus (46 B.C.) they 
were crushed. Fifty thousand lay dead upon the field. Cato, 
who had been the very life and soul of the army, refusing to out- 
live the republic, took his own life. 

Caesar's Triumph. — Caesar was now virtually lord of the Roman 
world. Although he refrained from assuming the title of king, no 
Eastern monarch was ever possessed of more absolute power, or 
surrounded by more abject flatterers and sycophants. He was 
invested with all the offices and dignities of the state. The 
Senate made him perpetual dictator, and conferred upon him the 
powers of censor, consul, and tribune, with the titles of Pontifex 
Maximus and Imperator (whence Emperor) . " He was to sit in 
a golden chair in the Senate-house, his image was to be borne in 
the procession of the gods, and the seventh month of the year was 
changed in his honor from Quintilis to Julius" [whence our July]. 

His triumph celebrating his many victories far eclipsed in mag- 
nificence anything that Rome had before witnessed. In the 
procession were led captive princes from all parts of the world. 
Beneath his standards marched soldiers gathered out of almost 
every country beneath the heavens. Seventy-five million dollars 
of treasure were displayed. Splendid games and tables attested 
tl>e liberahty of the conqueror. Sixty thousand couches were set 
for the multitudes. The shows of the theatre and the combats of 
the arena followed one another in an endless round. " Above the 
combats of the amphitheatre floated for the first time the awning 
of silk, the immense velarium of a thousand colors, woven from 
the rarest and richest products of the East, to protect the people 
from the sun" (Gibbon). 

Caesar as a Statesman. — Caesar was great as a general, yet 
greater, if possible, as a statesman. The measures which he in- 
stituted evince profound political sagacity and surprising breadth 
of view. He sought to reverse the jealous and narrow policy of 
Rome in the past, and to this end rebuilt both Carthage and Corinth, 



298 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

and founded numerous colonies in all the different provinces, in 
which he settled about one hundred thousand of the poorer citi- 
zens of the capital. Upon some of the provincials he conferred full 
Roman citizenship, and upon others Latin rights (see p. 246, note), 
and thus strove to blend the varied peoples and races within the 
boundaries of the empire in a real nationality, with community of 
interests and sympathies. He reformed the calendar so as to 
bring the festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided 
against further confusion by making the year consist of 365 days, 
with an added day for every fourth or leap year. 

Besides these achievements, Csesar projected many vast under- 
takings, which the abrupt termination of his life prevented his 
carrying into execution. Among these was his projected conquest 
of the Parthians and the Germans. He proposed, in revenge for 
the defeat and death of his friend Crassus, to break to pieces the 
Parthian empire ; then, sweeping with an army around above 
the Euxine, to destroy the dreaded hordes of Scythia ; and then, 
falling upon the German tribes in the rear, to crush their power 
forever, and thus relieve the Roman empire of their constant 
threat. He was about to set out on the expedition against the 
Parthians, when he was struck down by assassins. 

The Death of Csesar. — Csesar had his bitter personal enemies, 
who never ceased to plot his downfall. There were, too, sincere 
lovers of the old republic, who longed to see restored the liberty 
which the conqueror had overthrown. The impression began to 
prevail that Caesar was aiming to make himself king. A crown was 
several times offered him in public by Mark Antony ; but, seeing the 
manifest displeasure of the people, he each time pushed it aside. 
Yet there is no doubt that secretly he desired it. It was reported 
that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy, whence the Roman 
race had sprung, and make that ancient capital the seat of the 
new Roman empire. Others professed to beheve that the arts and 
charms of the Egyptian Cleopatra, who had borne him a son at 
Rome, would entice him to make Alexandria the centre of the 
proposed kingdom. So many, out of love for Rome and the old 



THE DEATH OF C^SAR. 299 

republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy against the life of 
Caesar with those who sought to rid themselves of the dictator for 
other and personal reasons. 

The Ides (the 15th day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day 
the Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or 
eighty conspirators, headed by Cassius and Brutus, both of whom 
had received special favors from the hands of Csesar, were con- 
cerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had some knowl- 
edge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned Csesar 
to " beware of the Ides of March." On his way to the Senate- 
meeting that day, a paper warning him of his danger was thrust into 
his hand ; but, not suspecting its urgent nature, he did not open 
it. As he entered the assembly chamber he observed the astrologer 
Spurinna, and remarked carelessly to him, referring to his predic- 
tion, "The Ides of March have come." "Yes," replied Spurinna, 
" but not gone." 

No sooner had Cassar taken his seat than the conspirators 
crowded about him as if to present a petition. Upon a signal 
from one of their number their daggers were drawn. For a mo- 
ment Caesar defended himself ; but seeing Brutus, upon whom he 
had lavished gifts and favors, among the conspirators, he exclaimed 
reproachfully, Et tu, Brute I — "Thou, too, Brutus!" drew his 
mantle over his face, and received unresistingly their further 
thrusts. Pierced with twenty-three wounds, he sank dead at the 
foot of Pompey's statue. 

Funeral Oration by Mark Antony. — The conspirators, or 
"liberators, "as they called themselves, had thought that the Sen- 
ate would confirm, and the people applaud, their act. But both 
people and senators, struck with consternation, were silent. Men's 
faces grew pale as they recalled the proscriptions of Sulla, and 
saw in the assassination of Csesar the first act in a similar reign 
of terror. As the conspirators issued from the assembly hall, and 
entered the Forum, holding aloft their bloody daggers, instead of 
the expected acclamations they were met by an ominous silence. 
The liberators hastened for safety to the Temple of Jupiter Capi- 



300 



LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 



tolinuSj going thither ostensibly for the purpose of giving thanks 
for the death of the tyrant. 

Upon the day set for the funeral ceremonies, Mark Antony, the 
trusted friend and secretary of Caesar, mounted the rostrum in 
the Forum to deliver the usual funeral oration. He recounted the 
great deeds of Caesar, the glory he had conferred upon the Roman 
name, dwelt upon his liberality and his munificent bequests to the 
people — even to some who were now his murderers ; and, when 
he had wrought the feelings of the multitude to the highest ten- 
sion, he raised the robe of Caesar, and 
showed the rents made by the daggers 
of the assassins. Caesar had always 
been beloved by the people and idol- 
ized by his soldiers. They were now- 
driven almost to frenzy with grief and 
indignation. Seizing weapons and 
torches, they rushed through the 
streets, vowing vengeance upon the 
conspirators. The liberators, how- 
ever, escaped from the fury of the 
mob, and fled from Rome, Bru- 
tus and Cassius seeking refuge in 
Greece. 

The Second Triumvirate. — Antony had gained possession of 
the will and papers of Caesar, and now, under color of carrying 
out the testament of the dictator, according to a decree of the 
Senate, entered upon a course of high-handed usurpation. He 
was aided in his designs by Lepidus, one of Caesar's old lieutenants. 
Very soon he was exercising all the powers of a real dictator. 
"The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, "but the tyranny still lives." 
This was a bitter commentary upon the words of Brutus, who, as 
he drew his dagger from the body of Caesar, turned to Cicero, 
and exclaimed, " Rejoice, O Father of your Country, for Rome is 
free." Rome could not be free, the republic could not be re- 
established because the old love for virtue and hberty had died 




MARK ANTONY. 



THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 



301 



out from among the people — had been overwhelmed by the rising 
tide of vice, corruption, sensuality, and irreligion that had set in 
upon the capital. 

To what length Antony would have gone in his career of usurpa- 
tion it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by 
Caius Octavius, 
the grand-neph- 
ew of Julius 
Caesar, and the 
one whom he 
had named in 
his will as his 
heir and suc- 
cessor. Upon 
the Senate de- 
claring in favor • 
of Octavius, 
civil war imme- 
diately broke 
out between 
him and Anto- 
ny and Lepi- 
dus. After 
several indeci- 
sive battles be- 
tween the for- 
ces of the rival JULIUS C/ESAR. (From a Bust in the Museum of the Louvre.) 

competitors, 

Octavius proposed to x^ntony and Lepidus a reconciliation. The 
three met on a small island in the Rhenus, a little stream in North- 
ern Italy, and there formed a league known as the Second Trium- 
virate (43 B.C.). 

The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided 
the world among themselves : Octavius was to have the govern- 
ment of the West ; Antony, that of the East ; while to Lepidus 




302 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

fell the control of Africa. A general proscription, such as had 
marked the coming to power of Sulla (see p. 283), was then re- 
solved upon. It was agreed that each should give up to the 
assassin such friends of his as had incurred the ill will of either of 
the other triumvirs. Under this arrangement Octavius gave up 
his friend Cicero, — who had incurred the hatred of Antony by 
opposing his schemes, — and allowed his name to be put at the 
head of the list of the proscribed. 

The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. " Let 
me die," said he, "in my fatherland, which I have so often saved ! " 
His attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling, towards the 
coast, when his pursuers came up and despatched him in the lit- 
ter in which he was being carried. His head was taken to Rome, 
and set up in front of the rostrum, " from which he had so often 
addressed the people with his eloquent appeals for liberty." It 
is told that Fulvia, the wife of Antony, ran her gold bodkin through 
the tongue, in revenge for the bitter philippics it had uttered 
against her husband. The right hand of the victim — the hand 
that had penned the eloquent orations — was nailed to the rostrum, 

Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the 
dreadful scenes of the days of Sulla were re-enacted. Three 
hundred senators and two thousand knights were murdered. 
The estates of the wealthy were confiscated, and conferred by 
the triumvirs upon their friends and favorites. 

Last Struggle of the Eepublic at Philippi (42 b.c.). — The 
friends of the old republic, and the enemies of the triumvirs, were 
meanwhile rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius were the ani- 
mating spirits. The Asiatic provinces were plundered to raise 
money for the soldiers of the liberators. Octavius and Antony, as 
soon as they had disposed of their enemies in Italy, crossed the 
Adriatic into Greece, to disperse the forces of the republicans 
there. The liberators, advancing to meet them, passed over 
the Hellespont into Thrace. 

Tradition tells how one night a spectre appeared to Brutus and 
seemed to say, " I am thy evil genius ; we will meet again at Phil- 



ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 303 

ippi." At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies met (42 B.C.). 
In two successive engagements the new levies of the liberators 
were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the 
cause of the republic forever lost, committed suicide. It was, 
indeed, the last effort of the republic. The history of the events 
tha.t lie between the action at Philippi and the establishment of 
the empire is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs 
for the possession of the prize of supreme power. After various 
redistributions' of provinces, Lepidus was at length expelled from 
the triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, as in the times 
of Csesar and Pompey, was in the hands of two masters — Antony 
in the East, and Octavius in the West. 

Antony and Cleopatra. — After the battle of Philippi, Antony 
went into Asia for the purpose of settling the affairs of the prov- 
inces and vassal states there. He summoned Cleopatra, the fair 
queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus, in Cilicia, there to give 
account to him for the aid she had rendered the liberators. She 
obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of her charms to 
appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus 
in a gilded barge, with oars of silver, and sails of purple silk. Be- 
neath awnings wrought of the richest manufactures of the East, 
the beautiful queen, attired to personate Venus, reclined amidst 
lovely attendants dressed to represent cupids and nereids. An- 
tony was completely fascinated, as had been the great Caesar 
before him, by the dazzling beauty of the "Serpent of the Nile." 
Enslaved by her enchantments, and charmed by her brilliant wit, 
in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else — ambition and 
honor and country. 

Once, indeed, Antony did rouse himself and break away from 
his enslavement to lead the Roman legions across the Euphrates 
against the Parthians. But the storms of approaching winter, and 
the incessant attacks of the Parthian cavalry, at length forced him 
to make a hurried and disastrous retreat. He hastened back 
to Egypt, and sought to forget his shame and disappointment 
amidst the revels of the Egyptian court. 



304 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

The Battle of Actium (31 b.c). — Affairs could not long con- 
tinue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful 
wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at 
Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alexan- 
dria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Csesarion, son 
of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as heir of the empire. All Rome 
was stirred. It was evident that a conflict was at hand in which 
the question for decision would be whether the West should rule 
the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively 
turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy, and the supporter of 
the sovereignty of the Eternal City. Both parties made the most 
gigantic preparations. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony 
and Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the Grecian 
coast. While the issue of the battle that there took place was yet 
undecided, Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. The Egyptian 
ships, to the number of fifty, followed her example. Antony, as 
soon as he perceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else, 
and followed in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the 
fleeing queen, the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel, 
and became her partner in the disgraceful flight. 

The abandoned fleet and army surrendered to Octavius. The 
conqueror was now sole master of the civilized world. From this 
decisive battle (31 B.C.) are usually dated the end of the republic 
and the beginning of the empire. Some, however, make the es- 
tablishment of the empire date from the year 27 B.C., as it was not 
until then that Octavius was formally invested with imperial powers. 

Deaths of Antony and Cleopatra. — Octavius pursued Antony 
to Egypt, where the latter, deserted by his army, and informed by 
a messenger from the false queen that she was dead, committed 
suicide. Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her 
charms ; but, failing in this, and becoming convinced that he pro- 
posed to take her to Rome that she might there grace his triumph, 
she took her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. 
Tradition says that she effected her purpose by applying an asp to 
her arm. But it is really unknown in what way she killed herself. 



REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CMSAR. 305 




CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

(From 31 B.C. to a.d. 180.) 

Reign of Augustus Caesar (31 b.c. to a.d. 14). — The hun- 
dred years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left 
the Roman republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one 
wise enough and strong enough to remould its crumbling frag- 
ments in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to 
fall to pieces, might prolong its existence for another five hundred 
years. It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of 
anarchy and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such 
elements of perpetuity and strength. " The establishment of the 
Roman empire," says Merivale, "was, after all, the greatest politi- 
cal work that any human being ever wrought. The achievements 
of Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon, are not to 
be compared with it for a moment." 

The government which Octavius established was a monarchy in 
fact, but a republic in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, 
who fell because he gave the lovers Of the republic reason to 
think that he coveted the title of king, Octavius carefully veiled 
his really absolute sovereignty under the forms of the old repub- 
lican state. The Senate still existed ; but so completely subjected 
were its members to the influence of the conqueror that the only 
function it really exercised was the conferring of honors and titles 
and abject flatteries upon its master. All the republican officials 
remained ; but Octavius absorbed and exercised their chief powers 
and functions. He had the powers of consul, tribune, censor, and 
Pontifex Maximus. All the republican magistrates — the consuls, 
the tribunes, the praetors — were elected as usual ; but they were 
simply the nominees and creatures of the emperor. They were 



306 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



the effigies and figure-heads to delude the people into believing 
that the republic still existed. Never did a people seem more 
content with the shadow after the loss of the substance. 

The Sen- 
ate, acting 
under the 
inspiration 
of Octavius, 
withheld 
from him 
the title of 

king, which ever since the ex- 
pulsion of the Tarquins, five 
centuries before this time, had 
been intolerable to the peo- 
ple ; but they conferred upon 
him the titles of Imperator 
and Augustus, the latter hav- 
ing been hitherto sacred to the 
gods. The sixth month of the 
Roman year was called Au- 
gustus (whence our August) 
in his honor, an act in imi- 
tation of that by which the 
preceding month had been 
given the name of Julius in 
honor of Julius Caesar. 

The domains over which 
Augustus held sway were im- 
perial in magnitude. They 
stretched from the Atlantic 
to the Euphrates, and upon 

the north were hemmed by Augustus 

the forests of Germany and 
the bleak steppes of Scythia, and were bordered on the south by 




REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CJESAR. 307 

the sands of the African desert and the dreary wastes of Arabia, 
which seemed the boundaries set by nature to dominion in those 
directions. Within these Hmits were crowded more than 100,000,- 
000 people, embracing every conceivable condition and variety in 
race and culture, from the rough barbarians of Gaul to the refined 
voluptuary of the East. 

Octavius was the first to moderate the ambition of the Romans, 
and to council them not to attempt to conquer any more of the 
world, but rather to devote their energies to the work of consoli- 
dating the domains already acquired. He saw the dangers that 
would attend any further extension of the boundaries of the state. 

The reign of Augustus lasted forty- four years, from 31 B.C. to a.d. 
14. It embraced the most splendid period of the annals of Rome. 
Under the patronage of the emperor, and that of his favorite 
minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the 
"golden age " of Latin literature. During this reign Virgil com- 
posed his immortal epic of the ^neid, and Horace his famous 
odes ; while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and Ovid his Meta- 
morphoses. Many who lamented the fall of the republic sought 
solace in the pursuit of letters ; and in this they were encouraged 
by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that 
would otherwise have been engaged in political intrigues against 
his government. 

Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. 
He adorned the capital with many splendid structures. Said he 
proudly, " I found Rome a city of brick ; I left it a city of mar- 
ble." The population of the city at this time was probably about 
one million. 

Although the government of Augustus was disturbed by some 
troubles upon the frontiers, still never before, perhaps, did the 
world enjoy so long a period of general rest from the preparation 
and turmoil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the 
gates of the Temple of Janus at Rome, which were open in time 
of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before 
during the entire history of the city had they been closed, so con- 



308 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

stantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. It was in 
the midst of this happy reign, when profound peace prevailed 
throughout the civilized world, that Christ was born in Bethlehem 
of Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome ; yet it was filled 
with profound significance, not only for the Roman empire, but 
for the world. 

The latter years of the life of Augustus were clouded both by 
domestic bereavement and national disaster. His beloved ne_phew 
Marcellus, and his two grandsons Caius and Lucius, whom he 
purposed making his heirs, were all removed by death ; and then, 
far away in the German forest, his general Varus, who had at- 
tempted to rule the freedom-loving Teutons as he had governed 
ihe abject Asiatics of the Eastern provinces, was surprised by the 
barbarians, led by their brave chief Hermann, — Arminius, as called 
by the Romans, — and his army destroyed almost to a man (a.d. 9) . 
Twenty thousand of the legionaries lay dead and unburied in the 
tangled woods and morasses of Germany. 

The victory of Arminius over the Roman legions was an event 
of the greatest significance in the history of European civilization. 
Germany was almost overrun by the Roman army. The Teutonic 
tribes were on the point of being completely subjugated and 
Romanized, as had been the Celts of Gaul before them. Had 
this occurred, the entire history of Europe would have been 
changed ; for the Germanic element is the one that has given 
shape and color to the important events of the last fifteen hundred 
years. Those barbarians, too, were our ancestors. Had Rome 
succeeded in exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, as Creasy 
says, would never have received the name of England, and the 
great English nation would never have had an existence. 

In the year a.d. 14, Augustus died, having reached the seventy- 
sixth year of his age. It was believed that his soul ascended 
visibly amidst the flames of the funeral pyre. By decree of the 
Senate divine worship was accorded to him, and temples were 
erected in his honor. 

One of the most important of the acts of Augustus, in its influ- 



REIGN OF TIBERIUS. 309 

ence upon following events, was the formation of the Praetorian 
Guard, which was designed for a sort of body-guard to the em- 
peror. In the succeeding reign this body of soldiers, about ten 
thousand in number, was given a permanent camp alongside the 
city walls. It soon became a formidable power in the state, and 
made and unmade emperors at will. 

Reign of Tiberius (a.d. 14-37). — Tiberius succeeded to an 
unlimited sovereignty. The Senate conferred upon him all the 
titles that had been worn by Augustus. One of the first acts of 
Tiberius gave the last blow to the ancient republican institutions. 
He took away from the popular assembly the privilege of electing 
the consuls and praetors, and bestowed the same upon the Senate, 
which, however, must elect from candidates presented by the 
emperor. As the Senate was the creation of the emperor, who as 
censor made up the list of its members, he was now of course the 
source and fountain of all patronage. During the first years of 
his reign, Tiberius used his practically unrestrained authority with 
moderation and justice, but soon yielding to the promptings of a 
naturally cruel, suspicious, and jealous nature, he entered upon a 
course of the most high-handed tyranny. He enforced oppressively 
an old law, known as the law of majestas, which made it a capital 
offence for any one to speak a careless word, or even to entertain 
an unfriendly thought, respecting the emperor. " It was dangerous 
to speak, and equally dangerous to keep silent," says Leighton, 
" for silence even might be construed into discontent." Rewards 
were offered to informers, and hence sprang up a class of persons 
called " delators," who acted as spies upon society. Often false 
charges were made, to gratify personal enmity ; and many, espe- 
cially of the wealthy class, were accused and put to death that 
their property might be confiscated. 

Tiberius appointed, as his chief minister and as commander of 
the praetorians, one Sejanus, a man of the lowest and most corrupt 
life. This officer actually persuaded Tiberius to retire to the 
little island of Capreae, in the Bay of Naples, and leave to him 
the management of affairs at Rome. The emperor built several 



310 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

villas in different parts of the beautiful islet, and, having gathered 
a band of congenial companions, passed in this pleasant retreat 
the later years of his reign. Both Tacitus' the historian and 
Suetonius the biographer tell many stories of the scandalous 
profligacy of the emperor's Hfe on the island ; but these tales, 
it should be added, are discredited by some. 

Meanwhile, Sejanus was ruling at Rome very much according 
to his own will. No man's life was safe. He even grew so bold 
as to plan the assassination of the emperor himself. His designs, 
however, became known to Tiberius ; and the infamous and dis- 
loyal minister was arrested and put to death. 

After the execution of his minister, Tiberius ruled more des- 
potically than ever before. Multitudes sought refuge from his 
tyranny in suicide. Death at last relieved the world of the mon- 
ster. His end was probably hastened by his attendants, who are 
believed to have smothered him in his bed, as he lay dying. 

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote 
province of the Roman empire, the Saviour was crucified. Ani- 
mated by an unparalleled missionary spirit. His followers traversed 
the length and breadth of the empire, preaching everywhere the 
" glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in the gods of the old mytholo- 
gies, the softening and liberalizing influence of Greek culture, the 
unification of the whole civilized world under a single govern- 
ment, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weariness of 
the oppressed and servile classes, — all these things had prepared 
the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than three 
centuries the Pagan empire had become Christian not only in 
name, but also very largely in fact. This conversion of Rome is 
one of the most important events in all history. A new element 
is here introduced into civilization, an element which we shall find 
giving color and character to very much of the story of the eighteen 
centuries that we have yet to study. 

Reign of Caligula (a.d. 37-41). — Caius Caesar, better known 
as Caligula, was only twenty-five years of age when the death of 
Tiberius called him to the throne. His career was very similar to 



REIGN OF CLAUDIUS, 311 

that of Tiberius. After a few months spent in arduous apphca- 
tion to the affairs of the empire, during which time his many acts 
of kindness and piety won for him the affections of all classes, the 
mind of the young emperor became unsettled, and he began to 
indulge in all sorts of insanities. The cruel sports of the amphi- 
theatre possessed for him a strange fascination. When animals 
failed, he ordered spectators to be seized indiscriminately, and 
thrown to the beasts. He entered the lists himself, and fought 
as a gladiator upon the arena. In a sanguinary mood, he wished 
that " the people of Rome had but one neck." As an insult to his 
nobles, he gave out that he proposed to make his favorite horse, 
Incitatus, consul. He declared himself divine, and removing the 
heads of Jupiter's statues, put on his own. 

After four years the insane career of Caligula was brought to a 
close by some of the officers of the praetorian guard, whom he 
had wantonly insulted. 

Reign of Claudius (a.d. 41-54). — The reign of Claudius, 
Caligula's successor, was signalized by the conquest of Britain. 
Nearly a century had now passed since the invasion of the island 
by Juhus Caesar, who, as has been seen (see p. 292), simply made 
a reconnoissance of the island and then withdrew. Claudius 
conquered all the southern portion of the island, and founded 
many colonies, which in time became important centres of Roman 
trade and culture. The leader of the Britons was Caractacus. 
He was taken captive and carried to Rome. Gazing in astonish- 
ment upon the magnificence of the imperial city, he exclaimed, 
'' How can a people possessed of such splendor at home envy 
Caractacus his humble cottage in Britain? " 

Claudius distinguished his reign by the execution of many im- 
portant works. At the mouth of the Tiber he constructed a 
magnificent harbor, called the Portus Romanus. The Claudian 
Aqueduct, which he completed, was a stupendous work, bringing 
water to the city from a distance of forty-five miles. 

The dehght of the people in gladiatorial shows had at this time 
become almost an insane frenzy. Claudius determined to give an 



312 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

entertainment that should render insignificant all similar efforts. 
Upon a large lake, whose sloping bank afforded seats for the vast 
multitudes of spectators, he exhibited a naval battle, in which two 
opposing fleets, bearing nineteen thousand gladiators, fought as 
though in real battle, till the water was filled with thousands of 
bodies, and covered with the fragments of the broken ships. 

Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites 
and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife Claudius married the 
" wicked Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish 
of poisoned mushrooms, in order to make place for the succes- 
sion of her son Nero. 

Reign of Nero (a.d. 54-68). — Nero was fortunate in having 
for his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca ; but 
never was teacher more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years 
Nero ruled with moderation and equity. He then broke away 
from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and entered upon a career 
filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity. The dagger 
and poison — the latter a means of murder the use of which at 
Rome had become a " fine art," and was in the hands of those 
who made it a regular profession — were employed almost un- 
ceasingly, to remove persons that had incurred his hatred, or who 
possessed wealth that he coveted. 

It was in the tenth year of his reign that the so-called Great 
Fire laid more than half of Rome in ashes. It was rumored that 
Nero had ordered the conflagration to be lighted, and that from 
the roof of his palace he had enjoyed the spectacle, and amused 
himself by singing a poem which he had written, entitled the 
" Sack of Troy." 

Nero did everything in his power to discredit the rumor. To 
turn attention from himself, he accused the Christians of having 
conspired to destroy the city, in order to help out their prophecies. 
The doctrine which was taught by some of the new sect respect- 
ing the second coming of Christ, and the destruction of the world 
by fire, lent color to the charge. The persecution that followed 
was one of the most cruel recorded in the history of the Church. 



REIGN OF NERO. 313 

Many victims were covered with pitch and burned at night, to 
serve as torches in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves the 
names of the Apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this Neronian 
persecution. 

As to Rome, the conflagration was a blessing in disguise. The 
city rose from its ashes as quickly as Athens from her ruins at 
the close of the Persian wars. The new buildings were made fire- 
proof : and the narrow, crooked streets reappeared as broad and 
beautiful avenues. A considerable portion of the burnt region 
was appropriated by Nero for the buildings and grounds of an 
immense palace, called the "Golden House." It covered so 
much space that the people "maliciously hinted" that Nero had 
fired the old city, in order to make room for it. 

The emperor secured money for his enormous expenditures by 
new extortions, murders, and confiscations. No one of wealth 
knew but that his turn might come next. A conspiracy was 
formed among the nobles to reheve the state of the monster. The 
plot was discovered, and again " the city was filled with funerals." 
Lucan the poet, and Seneca, the old preceptor of Nero, both fell 
victims to the tyrant's rage. 

Nero now made a tour through the East, and there plunged 
deeper and deeper into every shame, sensuality, and crime. The 
tyranny and the disgrace were no longer endurable. Almost at 
the same moment the legions in several of the provinces revolted. 
The Senate decreed that Nero was a public enemy, and condemned 
him to a disgraceful death by scourging, to avoid which he in- 
structed a slave how to give him a fatal thrust. His last words 
were, " What a loss my death will be to art ! " 

Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian fine. The family of 
the Great Caesar was now extinct ; but the name remained, and 
was adopted by all the succeeding emperors. 

Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (a.d. 68-69). — These three names 
are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all short and 
uneventful. The succession, upon the death of Nero and the 
extinction in him of the Julian line, was in dispute, and the legions 



314 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



in different quarters supported the claims of their favorite leaders. 
One after another the three aspirants named were killed in bloody 
struggles for the imperial purple. The last, Vitellius, was hurled 
from the throne by the soldiers of Flavius Vespasian, the old and 
beloved commander of the legions in Palestine, which were at this 
time engaged in a war with the Jews. 

Reign of Vespasian (a.d. 69-79). — The accession of Flavius 
Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing three reigns, 
known as the Flavian Age (a.d. 69-96). Vespasian's reign was 
signahzed both by important military achievements abroad and by 
stupendous public works undertaken at Rome. 

After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history, 
Jerusalem was taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. The Temple 

was destroyed, 
and more than 
a million of 
Jews that were 
crowded in the 
city are believed 
to have perished. 
Great multitudes 
suffered death by 
crucifixion. The 
miserable remnants of the nation were scattered everywhere over 
the world. Josephus, the great historian, accompanied the con- 
queror to Rome. In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed 
the Temple of its sacred utensils, and bore them away as trophies. 
Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name may be 
seen at the present day the sculptured representation of the 
golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the 
war. 

In the opposite corner of the empire a dangerous revolt of the 
Gauls was suppressed, and in the island of Britain the Roman 
commander Agricola subdued or crowded back the native tribes 
until he had extended the frontiers of the empire into what is now 




COIN OF VESPASIAN. 



REIGN OF VESPASIAN. 



315 



Scotland. Then, as a protection against the incursions of the 
Caledonians, the ancestors of the Scottish Highlanders, he con- 
structed a line of fortresses from the Frith of Forth to the Frith 
of Clyde. 

Vespasian rebuilt the Capitoline temple, which had been burned 
during the struggle between his soldiers and the adherents of 
Vitellius ; he constructed a new forum which bore his own name ; 
and also began the erection of the celebrated Flavian amphi- 
theatre, which was completed by his successor. After a most 
prosperous reign of ten years, Vespasian died a.d. 79, the first 
emperor after Augustus that did not meet with a violent death. 




TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS: 
Showing the Seven-branched Candlestick and other Trophies from the Temple at Jerusalem. 



At the last moment he requested his attendants to raise him upon 
his feet that he might '' die standing," as befitted a Roman 
emperor. 

Reign of Titus (a.d. 79-81). — In a short reign of two years 



316 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



Titus won the title, the " Delight of Mankind." He was un- 
wearied in acts of benevolence and in bestowal of favors. Hav- 
ing let a day slip by without some act of kindness performed, 
he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, " I have lost a 
day." 

Titus completed and dedicated the great Flavian amphitheatre 
begun by his father, Vespasian. This vast structure, which accom- 
modated more than eighty thousand spectators, is better known as 
the Colosseum — a name given it either because of its gigantic 
proportions, or on account of a colossal statue of Nero which 
happened to stand near it. 




STREET IN POMPEII. (A Reconstruction.) 

The reign of Titus, though so short, was signaHzed by two great 
disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost 
as calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second 
was the destruction; by an eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian 
cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried 



D OMIT I AN. 317 

beneath showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. 
PHny the elder, the great naturalist, venturing too near the moun- 
tain to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life.^ 

Domitian — Last of the Twelve Caesars (a.d. 81-96). — Domi- 
tian, the brother of Titus, was the last of the line of emperors 
known as "the Twelve Caesars." The title, however, was assumed 
by, and is applied to, all succeeding emperors ; the sole reason that 
the first twelve princes are grouped together is because the Roman 
biographer Suetonius completed the lives of that number only. 

Domitian's reign was an exact contrast to that of his brother 
Titus. It was one succession of extravagances, tyrannies, confis- 
cations, and murders. Under this emperor took place what is 
known in Church history as " the second persecution of the Chris- 
tians." This class, as well as the Jews, were the special objects of 
Domitian's hatred, because they refused to worship the statues 
of himself which he had set up (see p. 322). 

The last of the Twelve Caesars perished in his own palace, and 
by the hands of members of his own household. The Senate 
ordered his infamous name to be erased from the public monu- 
ments, and to be blotted from the records of the Roman state. 

The Five Good Emperors: Reign of Nerva (a.d. 96-98). — 
The five emperors — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two An- 
tonines — that succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate, 
which during this period assumed something of its former weight 
and influence in the affairs of the empire. The wise and benefi- 
cent administration of the government by these rulers secured 
for them the enviable distinction of being called " the five good 
emperors." Nerva died after a short reign of sixteen months, 

1 In the year 1713, sixteen centuries after the destruction of the cities, the 
ruins were disoovered by some persons engaged in digging a well, and since 
then extensive excavations have been made, which have uncovered a large 
part of Pompeii, and revealed to us the streets, homes, theatres, baths, shops, 
temples, and various monuments of the ancient city — all of which present to 
us a very vivid picture of Roman life during the imperial period, eighteen 
hundred years ago. 



318 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



and the sceptre passed into the stronger hands of the able com- 
mander Trajan, whom Nerva had previously made his associate in 
the government. 

Keign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117). — Trajan was a native of Spain, 
and a soldier by profession and talent. His ambition to achieve 

military renown led him to 
undertake distant and impor- 
tant conquests. It was the 
policy of Augustus — a policy 
adopted by most of his suc- 
cessors — to make the Dan- 
ube in Europe and the 
Euphrates in Asia the hmits 
of the Roman empire in 
those respective quarters. 
But Trajan determined to 
push the frontiers of his do- 
minions beyond both these 
rivers, scorning to permit 
Nature by these barriers to 
mark out the confines of 
Roman sovereignty. 

He crossed the Danube 
by means of a bridge, the 
foundations ' of which may 
still be seen, and subjugated 
the bold and warlike Dacian 
tribes lying behind that 
stream — tribes that had 
often threatened the peace 
of the empire." After cele- 
brating his victories in a 
magnificent triumph at Rome, Trajan turned to the East, led 
his legions across the Euphrates, reduced Armenia, and wrested 
from the Parthians most of the territory which anciently formed 




TRAuAiN 




25 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

UNDER TRAJAN 

A.D.II7. 

/ ~~~ — 



15 



REIGN OF TRAJAN. 



319 



the heart of the Assyrian monarchy. To Trajan belongs the 
distinction of extending the boundaries of the empire to the 
most distant points to which Roman ambition and prowess were 
ever able to push them. 

But Trajan was something besides a soldier. He had a taste 
for literature : Juvenal, Plutarch, and the younger Pliny wrote 
under his patronage ; and, moreover, as is true of almost all 
great conquerors, he had a perfect passion for building. Among 
the great works with which he embellished the capital was the 
Trajan Forum. Here he erected the celebrated marble shaft 
known as Trajan's column. It is one hundred and forty-seven 




BESIEGING A DACIAN CITY. (From Trajan's Column.) 



feet high, and is wound from base to summit by a spiral band 
of sculptures, containing more than twenty-five thousand human 
figures. The column is nearly as perfect to-day as when reared 
eighteen centuries ago. It was intended to commemorate the 
Dacian conquests of Trajan ; and its pictured sides are the best, 
and almost the only, record we now possess of those wars. 

Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the 
character of the early professors of the new faith, and the light 
in which they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we 
have very important evidence in a certain letter written by Phny 
the Younger to the emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus, 



320 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

in Asia Minor, of which remote province PHny was governor. 
PHny speaks of the new creed as a " contagious superstition, that 
had seized not cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open 
country." Yet he could find no fault in the converts to the new 
doctrines. Notwithstanding this, however, because the Christians 
steadily refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many 
to be put to death for their " inflexible obstinacy." 

Trajan died a.d. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of the 
most prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot of the 
Roman people. 

Reign of Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138). — Hadrian, a kinsman of 
Trajan, succeeded him in the imperial office. He possessed great 
ability, and displayed admirable moderation and prudence in the 
administration of the government. He gave up the territory con- 
quered by Trajan in the East, and made the Euphrates once more 
the boundary of the empire in that quarter. He also broke down 
the bridge that Trajan had built over the Danube, and made that 
stream the real frontier line, notwithstanding the Roman garrisons 
were still maintained in Dacia. Hadrian saw plainly that Rome 
could not safely extend any more widely the frontiers of the 
empire. Indeed, so active and threatening were the enemies of 
the empire in the East, and so daring and numerous had now 
become its barbarian assailants of the North, that there was rea- 
son for the greatest anxiety lest they should break through even 
the old and strong lines of the Danube and the Euphrates, and 
pour their devastating hordes over the provinces. 

More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in 
making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of 
the empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman posses- 
sions there against the Picts and Scots by erecting a continuous 
wall across the island. Next he journeyed through Gaul and 
Spain, and then visited in different tours all the remaining coun- 
tries bordering upon the Mediterranean. He ascended the Nile, 
and, traveller-Hke, carded his name upon the vocal Memnon. 
The cities which he visited he decorated with temples, theatres, 
and other monuments. 



THE ANTONINES. 321 

In the year 131, the Jews in Palestine, who h^ in a measure 
recovered from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out 
in desperate revolt, because of the planting of a Roman colony 
upon the almost desolate site of Jerusalem, and the placing of 
the statue of Jupiter in the Holy Temple. More than half a 
million of Jews perished in the useless struggle, and the survivors 
were driven into exile — the last dispersion of the race. 

The latter years of his reign Hadrian passed at Rome. It was 
here that this princely builder erected his most splendid structures. 
Among these was the Mole, or Mausoleum, of Hadrian, an immense 
structure surmounted by a gilded dome, erected on the banks of 
the Tiber, and designed as a tomb for himself. 

The Antonines (a.d. 138-180). — Aurehus Antoninus, surnamed 
Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the 
Roman empire an administration singularly pure and parental. 
Of him it has been said that " he was the first, and, saving his 
colleague and successor Aurelius, the only one of the emperors 
who devoted himself io the task of government with a single view 
to the happiness of his people." Throughout his long reign of 
twenty-three years, the empire was in a state of profound peace. 
The attention of the historian is attracted by no striking events, 
which, as many have not failed to observe, illustrates admirably the 
oft-repeated maxim, "Happy is that people whose annals are brief." 

Antoninus, early in his reign, united with himself in the govern- 
ment his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death of the 
former (a.d. 161) the latter succeeded quietly to his place and 
work. His studious habits won for him the title of " Philosopher." 
He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was a most thoughtful 
writer. His Meditations breathe the tenderest sentiments of devo- 
tion and benevolence, and make the nearest approach to the spirit 
of Christianity of all the writings of Pagan antiquity. He estab- 
lished an Institution, or Home, for orphan girls ; and, finding the 
poorer classes throughout Italy burdened by their taxes and 
greatly in arrears in paying them, he caused all the tax-claims to 
be heaped in the Forum and burned. 



322 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

The tastes aiM sympathies of Aurehus would have led him to 
choose a life passed in retirement and study at the capital ; but 
hostile movements of the Parthians, and especially invasions of the 
barbarians along the Rhenish and Danubian frontiers, called him 
from his books, and forced him to spend most of the latter years 
of his reign in the camp. The Parthians, who had violated their 
treaty with Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants of the em- 
peror, and Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority. 

This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The 
returning soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which 
swept off vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and 
districts were depopulated. In the general distress and panic, the 
superstitious people were led to believe that it was the new sect 
of Christians that had called down upon the nation the anger of 
the gods. Aurelius permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted 
against them, during which the famous Christian fathers and 
bishops, Justin Martyr and Polycarp, suffered death. 

It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under 
the Pagan emperors, sprung from political rather than religious mo- 
tives, and that this is why we find the names of the best emperors, 
as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was 
believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the care- 
ful performance of the rites of the national worship ; and hence, 
while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allowing all 
forms of worship among their subjects, still they required that men 
of every faith should at least recognize the Roman gods, and burn 
incense before their statues. This the Christians steadily refused 
to do. Their neglect of the service of the temple, it was believed, 
angered the gods, and endangered the safety of the state, bringing 
upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the 
main reason of their persecution by the Pagan emperors. 

But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the 
imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the North. 
The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts, and pouring 
impetuously over the frontiers. To the panic of the plague was 



ROMAN EMPERORS. 



323 



added this new terror. Aurelius placed himself at the head of his 
legions, and hurried beyond the Alps. For many years, amidst 
the snows of winter and the heats of summer, he strove to beat 
back the assailants of the empire. 

The efforts of the devoted Aurelius checked the inroads of the 
barbarians ; but he could not subdue them, so weakened was 
the empire by the ravages of the pestilence, and so exhausted 
was the treasury from the heavy and constant drains upon it. At 
last his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numer- 
ous campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now 
Vienna), in the nineteenth year of his reign (a.d. i8o). 

The united voice of the Senate and people pronounced him a 
god, and divine worship was accorded to his statue. Never was 
Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives and works of 
the Antonines. As Merivale, in dwelling upon their virtues, very 
justly remarks, " the blameless career of these illustrious princes 
has furnished the best excuse for Csesarism in all after-ages." 



ROMAN EMPERORS FROM AUGUSTUS TO MARCUS AURELIUS. 



(From 31 B.C. to A.D. 180.) 



Augustus reigns . 31 B.C. to a.d. 14 

Tiberius A.D. 14-37 

Caligula 37-41 

Claudius 41-54 

Nero 54-68 

Galba : 68-69 

Otho 69 

Vitellius 69 

Vespasian 69-79 



Titus A.D. 79-81 

Domitian 81-96 

Nerva 96^98 

Trajan 98-117 

Hadrian 1 17-138 

Antoninus Pius 1 38-1 61 

C Marcus Aurelius . . . . 161-180 

s Verus associated with Au- 

^ relius 161-169 



The first eleven, in connection with Julius Caesar, are called the Twelve 
Caesars. The last five (excluding Verus) are known as the Five Good 
Emperors. 



324 



DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST; 
BEGINNING OF THE GREAT GERMAN MIGRATION. 

(a.d. 180-476.) 

Reign of Commodus (a.d. 180-192) . — Under the wise and able 
administration of " the five good emperors " — Nerva, Trajan, 
Hadrian, and the two Antonines — the Roman empire reached 
its cuhiiination in power and prosperity ; and now, under the en- 
feebhng influences of vice and corruption within, and the heavy 

blows of the barbarians 
without, it begins to decline 
rapidly to its fall. 

Commodus, son of Mar- 
cus Aurelius, and the last 
of the Antonines, was a 
most unworthy successor 
of his illustrious father. 
For three years, however, 
surrounded by the able 
generals and wise counsel- 
lors that the prudent ad- 
ministration of the preced- 
ing emperors had drawn 
to the head of affairs, 
Commodus ruled with 
fairness and lenity, when 
an unsuccessful conspiracy against his life seemed suddenly to 
kindle all the slumbering passions of a Nero. He secured the 
favor of the rabble with the shows of the amphitheatre, and 
purchased the support of the praetorians with bribes and flat- 




COMMODUS (as Hercules). 



" THE BARRACK EMPERORSr 325 

teries. Thus he was enabled for ten years to retain the throne, 
while perpetrating all manner of cruelties, and staining the impe- 
rial purple with the most detestable debaucheries and crimes. 

Commodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats, and attired 
in a lion's skin, and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly 
set upon and slew antagonists arrayed to represent mythological 
monsters, and armed with great sponges for rocks. The Senate, 
so obsequiously servile had that body become, conferred upon him 
the title of the Roman Hercules, and also voted him the addi- 
tional surnames of Pius and Felix, and even proposed to change 
the name of Rome and call it Colonia Commodiana. 

The empire was finally relieved of the insane tyrant by some 
members of the royal household, who anticipated his designs 
against themselves by putting him to death. 

"The Barrack Emperors." — For nearly a century after the 
death of Commodus (from a.d. 192 to 284), the emperors were 
elected by the army, and hence the rulers for this period have 
been called "the Barrack Emperors." The character of the pe- 
riod is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five emperors who 
mounted the throne during this time all except four came to their 
deaths by violence. " Civil war, pestilence, bankruptcy, were all 
brooding over the empire. The soldiers had forgotten how to 
fight, the rulers how to govern." On every side the barbarians 
were breaking into the empire to rob, to murder, and to burn. 

The Public Sale of the Empire (a.d. 193). — The beginning 
of these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on 
the part of the praetorians. Upon the death of Commodus, Perti- 
nax, a distinguished senator, was placed on the throne ; but his 
efforts to enforce discipline among the praetorians aroused their 
anger, and he was slain by them after a short reign of only three 
months. These soldiers then gave out notice that they would sell 
the empire to the highest bidder. It was, accordingly, set up for 
sale at the praetorian camp, and struck off to Didius Julianus, a 
wealthy senator, who gave ^1000 to each of the 12,000 soldiers 
at this time composing the guard. So the price of the empire was 
about ^12,000,000. 



326 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

But these turbulent and insolent soldiers at the capital of the 
empire were not to have things entirely their own way. As soon 
as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the legions on 
the frontiers, they rose as a single man in indignant revolt. Each 
of the three armies that held the Euphrates, the Rhine, and the 
Danube, proclaimed its favorite commander emperor. The leader 
of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great 
energy and force of character. He knew that there were other 
competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who 
first seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was 
soon at Rome. The prsetorians were no match for the trained 
legionaries of the frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend 
their emperor, who was taken prisoner and put to death after a 
reign of sixty-five days. 

Reign of Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-2 n). — One of the first 
acts of Severus was to organize a new body-guard of 50,000 
legionaries, to take the place of the unworthy praetorians, whom, 
as a punishment for the insult they had offered to the Roman 
state, he disbanded, and banished from the capital, and forbade 
to approach within a hundred miles of its walls. He next crushed 
his two rival competitors, and was then undisputed master of the 
empire. He put to death forty senators for having favored his 
late rivals, and completely destroyed the power of their body. 
Committing to the prefect of the new praetorian guard the man- 
agement of affairs at the capital, Severus passed the greater part 
of his long and prosperous reign upon the frontiers. At one time 
he was chastising the Parthians beyond the Euphrates, and at 
another, pushing back the Caledonian tribes from the Hadrian wall 
in the opposite corner of his dominions. Finally, in Britain, in 
his camp at York, death overtook him. 

Reign of Caracalla (a.d. 21 1-2 17). — Severus conferred the 
empire upon his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla mur- 
dered his brother, and then ordered Papinian, the celebrated 
jurist, to make a public argument in vindication of the fratricide. 
When that great lawyer refused, saying that '' it was easier to com- 



REIGN OF CARACALLA. 



327 



mit such a crime than to justify it/' he put him to death. Thou- 
sands fell victims to his senseless rage. Driven by remorse and 
fear, he fled from the capital, and wandered about the most dis- 
tant provinces. At Alexandria, on account of some uncomplimen- 
tary remarks by the citizens upon his appearance, he ordered a 
general massacre. Finally, after a reign of six years, the monster 
was slain in a remote corner of Syria. 

Caracalla's sole political act of real importance was the bestowal 
of citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the empire ; and 
this he did, not 
to give them a 
just privilege, 
but that he 
might collect 
from them cer- 
tain special 
taxes which 
only Roman 
citizens had to 
pay. B e f o r e 
the reign of 
Caracalla it was 
only particular 
classes of sub- 
jects, or the in- 
habitants of some particular city or province, that, as a mark of 
special favor, had, from time to time, been admitted to the rights 
of citizenship (see p. 280). By this wholesale act of Caracalla, the 
entire population of the empire was made Roman, at least in name 
and nominal privilege. " The city had become the world, or, viewed 
from the other side, the world had become the city" (Merivale). 

Reign of Alexander Severus (a.d. 222-235). — Severus restored 
the virtues of the Age of the Antonines. His administration was 
pure and energetic; but he strove in vain to resist the corrupt 
and downward tendencies of the times. He was assassinated. 




CARACALLA. 



328 



DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 



after a reign of fourteen years, by his seditious soldiers, who were 
angered by his efforts to reduce them to discipHne. They invested 
with the imperial purple an obscure officer named Maximin, a 
Thracian peasant, whose sole recommendation for this dignity was 
his gigantic stature and his great strength of limbs. Rome had 
now sunk to the lowest possible degradation. We may pass rapidly 
over the next fifty years of the empire. 

The Thirty Tyrants, (a.d. 251-268).- — Maximin was followed 
swiftly by Gordian, Philip, and Decius, and then came what is 












-' -',^V ,_ u- * 




TRIUMPH OF SAPOR OVER VALERIAN. 

called the "Age of the Thirty Tyrants." The imperial sceptre 
being held by weak emperors, there sprang up in every part of 
the empire, competitors for the throne — several rivals frequently 
appearing in the field at the same time. The barbarians pressed 
upon all the frontiers, and thrust themselves into all the provinces. 
The empire seemed on the point of falhng to pieces.^ But a 
fortunate succession of five good emperors — Claudius, Aurelian, 

1 It was during this period that the Emperor Valerian (a.d. 253-260), in a 
battle with the Persians before Edessa, in Mesopotamia, was defeated and 
taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king. A large rock tablet (see cut 
above), still to be seen near the Persian town of Shiraz, is believed to com- 
memorate the triumph of Sapor over the unfortunate emperor. 



THE FALL OF PALMYRA. 329 

Tacitus, Probus, and Cams (a.d. 268-284) — restored for a time 
the ancient boundaries, and again forced together into some sort 
of union the fragments of the shattered state. 

The Fall of Palmyra. — The most noted of the usurpers of 
authority in the provinces during the period of anarchy of which 
we have spoken, was Odenatus, Prince of Palmyra, a city occupy- 
ing an oasis in the midst of the Syrian Desert, midway between 
the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. In gratitude for the aid 
he had rendered the Romans against the Parthians, the Senate 
had bestowed upon him titles and honors. When the empire 
began to show signs of weakness and approaching dissolution, 
Odenatus conceived the ambitious project of erecting upon its 
ruins in the East a great Palmyrian kingdom. Upon his death, 
his wife, Zenobia, succeeded to his authority and to his ambitions. 
This famous princess claimed descent from Cleopatra, and it is 
certain that in the charms of personal beauty she was the rival of 
the Egyptian queen. Boldly assuming the title of " Queen of the 
East," she bade defiance to the emperor of Rome. Aurelian 
marched against her, defeated her armies, and carried her a cap- 
tive to Italy (273 B.C.). After having been led in golden chains 
in the triumphal procession of Aurelian, the queen was given a 
beautiful villa in the vicinity of Tibur, where, surrounded by her 
children, she passed the remainder of her checkered hfe. 

The ruins of Palmyra are among the most interesting remains 
of Graeco-Roman civilization in the East. 

Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305). — The reign of Diocletian 
marks an important era in Roman history. Up to this time the 
imperial government had been more or less carefully concealed 
under the forms and names of the old republic. The government 
now became an unveiled and absolute monarchy. Diocletian's 
reforms, though radical, were salutary, and infused such fresh 
vitality into the frame of the dying state as to give it a new lease 
of life for another term of nearly two hundred years. 

He determined to divide the numerous and increasing cares of 
the distracted empire, so that it might be ruled from two centres — 



330 



DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 



one in the East and the other in the West. In pursuance of this 
plan, he chose as a colleague a companion soldier, Maximian, 
upon whom he conferred the title of Augustus. After a few years, 

finding the cares of the co-sovereignty 
still too heavy, each sovereign asso- 
ciated with himself an assistant, who 
took the title of Caesar, and was con- 
sidered the son and heir of the em- 
peror. There were thus two Augusti 
and two Caesars. Milan, in Italy, be- 
came the capital and residence of 
Maximian ; while Nicomedia, in Asia 
Minor, became the seat of the court 
of Diocletian. The Augusti took 
charge of the countries near their re- 
spective capitals, while the younger 
and more active Caesars were assigned 
the government of the more distant 
and turbulent provinces. The vigor- 
of the government in every quarter of the 
The authority of each of the rulers was 




DIOCLETIAN. 



ous administration 

empire was thus secured. 

supreme within the territory allotted him ; but all acknowledged 

Diocletian as " the father and head of the state." 

The most serious drawback to the system of government thus 
instituted was the heavy expense incident to the maintenance of 
four courts with their trains of officers and dependants. The taxes 
became unendurable, husbandry ceased, and large masses of the 
population were reduced almost to starvation. 

While the changes made in the government have rendered the 
name of Diocletian famous in the political history of the Roman 
state, the cruel persecutions which he ordered against the Chris- 
tians have made his name in an equal degree infamous in ecclesi- 
astical annals ; for it was during this reign that the tenth — the 
last and severest — of the persecutions of the Church took place. 
By an imperial decree the churches of the Christians were ordered 



REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN. 



331 



to be torn down, and they themselves^ were outlawed. For ten 
years the fugitives were hunted in forest and cave. The victims 
were burned, were cast to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre — 
were put to death by every torture and in every mode that ingen- 
ious cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake the constancy 
of their faith. They courted the death that secured them, as they 
firmly believed, immediate entrance upon an existence of unending 
happiness. The exhibition of de- 
votion and constancy shown by 
the martyrs won multitudes to the 
persecuted faith. 

It was during this and the vari- 
ous other persecutions that vexed , 
the Church in the second and ; 
third centuries that the Christians 
sought refuge in the Catacombs, 
those vast subterranean galleries 
and chambers under the city of 
Rome. Here the Christians lived 
and buried their dead, and on the 
walls of the chambers sketched 
rude symbols of their hope and faith. It was in the darkness of 
these subterranean abodes that Christian art had its beginnings. 

After a prosperous reign of twenty years, becoming weary of 
the cares of state, Diocletian abdicated the throne, and forced or 
induced his colleague Maximian also to lay down his authority 
on the same day. Galerius and Constantius were, by this act, 
advanced to the purple and made Augusti ; and two new associates 
were appointed as Caesars. Diocletian, having enjoyed the ex- 
treme satisfaction of seeing the imperial authority quietly and suc- 
cessfully transmitted by his system, without the dictation of the 
insolent praetorians or the interference of the turbulent legion- 
aries, now retired to his country-seat at Salona, on the eastern 
shore of the Adriatic, and there devoted himself to rural pursuits. 
It is related that, when Maximian wrote him urging him to en- 




CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 

(From the Catacombs.) 



332 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

deavor, with him, to regain the power they had laid aside, he re- 
pUed : " Were you but to come to Salona and see the vegetables 
which I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would no 
longer talk to me of empire." 

Eeign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) ; the Empire 
becomes Christian. — Galerius and Constantius had reigned to- 
gether only one year, when the latter died at York, in Britain ; 
and his soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined 
by the system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine em- 
peror. Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters. 
For eighteen years Constantine fought to gain supremacy. At the 
end of that time every rival was crushed, and he was the sole ruler 
of the Roman world. 

Constantine was the first Christian emperor. He was con- 
verted to the new religion — such is the legend — by seeing in the 
heavens, during one of his campaigns against his rivals, a luminous 
cross with this inscription: "With this sign you will conquer." 
He made the cross the royal standard ; and the Roman legions 
now for the first time marched beneath the emblem of Christianity. 

By a decree issued from Milan a.d. 313, Christianity was made 
in effect the state rehgion ; but all other forms of worship were 
tolerated. With the view of harmonizing the different sects that 
had sprung up among the Christians, and to settle the controversy 
between the Arians and the Athanasians respecting the nature of 
Christ, — the former denied his equality with God the Father, — 
Constantine called the first QEcumenical, or General Council of the 
Church, at Nicaea, a town of Asia Minor, a.d. 325. Arianism was 
denounced, and a formula of Christian faith adopted, which is 
known as the Nicene Creed. 

After the recognition of Christianity, the most important act of 
Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the Bosporus, as 
the new capital of the empire. One reason which led the em- 
peror to choose this site in preference to Rome was the ungra- 
cious conduct towards him of the inhabitants of the latter city, 
because he had abandoned the worship of the old national deities. 




? 4 CO., ART-PRmllMa W-RkS, tUfl-ALU, N.T, 



REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. ZZZ 

But there were political reasons for such a change. Through the 
Eastern conquests of Rome, the centre of the population, wealth, 
and culture of the empire had shifted eastward. The West — 
Gaul, Britain, Spain — was rude and barbarous ; the East — 
Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor — was the abode of ancient civihzations 
from which Rome was proud to trace her origin. Constantine 
was not the first to entertain the idea of seeking in the East a 
new centre for the Roman world. The Itahans were inflamed 
against the first Caesar by the report that he intended to restore 
Ilium, the cradle of the Roman race, and make that the capital of 
the empire. 

Constantine organized at Byzantium a new Senate, while that at 
Rome sank to the obscure position of the council of a provincial 
municipality. Multitudes eagerly thronged to the new capital, 
and almost in a night the little colony grew into an imperial city. 
In honor of the emperor its name was changed to Constantinople, 
the " City of Constantine." Hereafter the eyes of the world were 
directed towards the Bosporus instead of the Tiber. 

To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine 
laid out the empire into four great divisions, called prefectures 
(see map), which were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and 
these again into one hundred and sixteen provinces. 

The character of Constantine has been greatly eulogized by 
Christian writers, while pagan historians very naturally painted it 
in dark colors. It is probable that he embraced Christianity, not 
entirely from conviction, but partly from political motives. As 
the historian Hodgkin puts it, '^ He was half, convinced of the 
truth of Christianity, and wholly convinced of the policy of em- 
bracing it." In any event, Constantine 's religion was a strange 
mixture of the old and the new faith : on his medals the Christian 
cross is held by the pagan deity. Victory. In his domestic rela- 
tions he was tyrannical and cruel. He died in the thirty-first year 
of his reign, leaving his kingdom to his three sons, Constans, 
Constantius, and Constantine. 

Reign of Julian the Apostate (a.d. T^di-T^d^) . — The parcel- 



334 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

ling out of the empire by Constantine among his sons led to 
strife and wars, which, at the end of sixteen years, left Constan- 
tius master of the whole. He reigned as sole emperor for about 
eight years, engaged in ceaseless warfare with German tribes in the 
West and with the Persians ^ in the East. Constantius was fol- 
lowed by his cousin Julian, who was killed while in pursuit of the 
troops of Sapor, king of the Persians (a.d. 2>^'^^. 

Julian is called the Apostate because he abandoned Christianity 
and labored to restore the pagan faith. In his persecution of 
the Christians, however, he could not resort to the old means — 
" the sword, the fire, the lions ; " for, under the softening influ- 
ences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the Roman world 
had already learned a gentleness and humanity that rendered 
impossible the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian persecu- 
tions. Julian's weapons were sophistry and ridicule, in the use of 
which he was a master. To degrade the Christians, and place 
them at a disadvantage in controversy, he excluded them from 
the schools of logic and rhetoric. 

Furthermore, to cast discredit upon the predictions of the 
Scriptures, Julian determined to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, 
which the Christians contended could not be restored because 
of the prophecies against it. He actually began excavations, but 
his workmen were driven in great panic from the spot by terrific 
explosions and bursts of flame. The Christians regarded the 
occurrence as miraculous ; and Julian himself, it is certain, was so 
dismayed by it that he desisted from the undertaking.^ 

It was in vain that the apostate emperor labored to uproot the 

1 The great Parthian empire, which had been such a formidable antago- 
nist of Rome, was, after an existence of five centuries, overthrown (a.d. 226) 
by a revolt of the Persians, and the New Persian, or Sassanian monarchy 
established. This empire lasted till the country was overrun by the Saracens 
in the seventh century A.D. 

2 The explosions which so terrified the workmen of Julian are supposed to 
have been caused by accumulations of gases — similar to those that so fre- 
quently occasion accidents in mines — in the subterranean chambers of the 
Temple foundations. 



VALENTINIAN AND VALENS. 



335 



new faith ; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal 
character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. 
Equally in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old 
Grecian and Roman divinities. Polytheism was a transitional form 
of religious belief which the world had now outgrown : Great Pan 
was dead. 

The disabilities under which Juhan had placed the Christians 
were removed by his successor Jovian (a.d. 363-4), and the 
Christian worship was re-established. 




GERMANS CROSSING THE RHINE. (Drawing by Alphonse de Neuville.) 

Valentinian and Valens. — Upon the death of Jovian, Valen- 
tinian, the commander of the imperial guard, was elected emperor 
by a council of the generals of the army and the ministers of the 
court. He appointed his brother Valens as his associate in office, 
and assigned to him the Eastern provinces, while reserving for him- 
self the Western. He set up his own court at Milan, while Jiis 
brother established his residence at Constantinople. 

The Movements of the Barbarians. — The reigns of Valen- 
tinian and Valens were signalized by threatening movements of 



336 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

the barbarian tribes, that now, ahuost at the same moment, began 
to press with redoubled energy against all the barriers of the em- 
pire. The Alemanni (Germans) crossed the Rhine — sometimes 
swarming over the river on the winter's ice — and, before pursuit 
could be made, escaped with their booty into the depths of the 
German forests. The Saxons, pirates of the northern seas, who 
issued from the mouth of the Elbe, ravaged the coasts of Gaul and 
Britain, even pushing their light skiffs far up the rivers and creeks 
of those countries, and carrying spoils from the inland cities. In 
Britain, the Picts broke through the Wall of Antoninus, and 
wrested almost the entire island from the hands of the Romans. 
In Africa, the Moorish and other tribes, issuing from the ravines 
of the Atlas Mountains and swarming from the deserts of the 
south, threatened to obliterate the last trace of Roman civilization 
occupying the narrow belt of fertile territory skirting the sea. 

The barbarian tide of invasion seemed thus on the point of 
overwhelming the empire in the West ; but jfor twelve years Val- 
entinian defended with signal ability and energy, not only his own 
territories, but aided with arms and counsel his weaker brother 
Valens in the defence of his. Upon the death of Valentinian, his 
son Gratian succeeded to his authority (a.d. 375). 

The Goths cross the Danube. — The year following the death 
.of Valentinian, an event of the greatest importance occurred in 
the East. The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the 
Lower Danube, who had often in hostile bands crossed that river 
to war against the Roman emperors, now appeared as suppliants 
in vast multitudes upon its banks. They said that a terrible race, 
whom they were powerless to withstand, had invaded their terri- 
tories, and spared neither their homes nor their lives. They 
begged permission of the Romans to cross the river and settle in 
Thrace, and promised, should this request be granted, ever to 
remain the grateful and firm allies of the Roman state. 

Valens consented to grant their petition on condition that they 
should surrender their arms, give up their children as hostages, 
and all be baptized in the Christian faith. Their terror and de- 



THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE. 337 

spair led them to assent to these conditions. So the entire nation, 
numbering one milUon souls, — counting men, women, and chil- 
dren, — were allowed to cross the river. Several days and nights 
were consumed in the transport of the vast multitudes. The 
writers of the times liken the passage to that of the Hellespont 
by the hosts of Xerxes. 

The enemy that had so terrified the Goths were the Huns, a 
monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen, that two centuries 
and more before the Christian era were roving the deserts north of 
the Great Wall of China (see p. 13). Migrating from that region, 
they moved slowly to the west, across the great plains of Central 
Asia, and, after wandering several centuries, appeared in Europe. 
They belonged to a different race (the Turanian) from all the 
other European tribes with which we have been so far concerned. 
Their features were hideous, their noses being flattened, and their 
cheeks gashed, to render their appearance more frightful, as well 
as to prevent the growth of a beard. Even the barbarous Goths 
called them "barbarians." 

Scarcely had the fugitive Visigoths been received within the 
limits of the empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the 
Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths), also driven from their homes by 
the same terrible Huns, crowded to the banks of the Danube, and 
pleaded that they might be allowed, as their countrymen had 
been, to place the river between themselves and their dreaded 
enemies. But Valens, becoming alarmed at the presence of so 
many barbarians within his dominions, refused their request ; 
whereupon they, dreading the fierce and implacable foe behind 
more than the wrath of the Roman emperor in front, crossed the 
river with arms in their hands. At this monient the Visigoths, 
rising in revolt, joined their kinsmen that were just now forcing 
the passage of the Danube, and began to ravage the Danubian 
provinces. Valens despatched swift messengers to Gratian in the 
West, asking for assistance against the foe he had so imprudently 
admitted within the limits of the empire. 

Theodosius the Great (a.d. 379-395). — Gratian was hurrying 



338 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE, 

to the help of his colleague Valens, when news of his defeat and 
death at the hands of the barbarians was brought to him, and he at 
once appointed as his associate Theodosius, known afterwards as 
the Great, and entrusted him with the government of the Eastern 
provinces. Theodosius, by wise and vigorous measures, quickly 
reduced the Goths to submission. Vast multitudes of the Visigoths 
were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while the Ostrogoths 
were scattered in various colonies' in different regions of Asia Minor. 
The Goths became allies of the Emperor of the East, and more 
than 40,000 of these warlike barbarians, who were destined to be 
the subverters of the empire, were enlisted in the imperial legions. 

While Theodosius was thus composing the East, the West, 
through the jealous rivalries of different competitors for the con- 
trol of the government, had fallen into great disorder. Theodosius 
twice interposed to right affairs, and then took the government 
into his own hands. For four months he ruled as sole monarch 
of the empire. 

Final Division of the Empire (a.d. 395). — The Roman world 
was now united for the last time under a single master. Just 
before his death, Theodosius divided the empire between his two 
sons, Arcadius and Honorius, assigning the former, who was only 
eighteen years of age, the government of the East, and giving the 
latter, a mere child of eleven, the sovereignty of the West. This 
was the final partition of the Roman empire — the issue of that 
growing tendency, which we have observed in its immoderately ex- 
tended dominions, to break apart. The separate histories of the 
East and the West now begin. 

The Eastern Empire. — The story of the fortunes of the Em- 
pire in the East need not detain us long at this point of our 
history. This monarchy lasted over a thousand years — from 
the accession to power of Arcadius, a.d. 395, to the capture of 
Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453. It will thus be seen 
that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period. 
Up to the time of the overthrow of the Empire in the West, the 
sovereigns of the East were engaged almost incessantly in sup- 



FIRST INVASION OF ITAIY. 339 

pressing uprisings of their Gothic aUies or mercenaries, or in re- 
pelHng invasions of the Huns and the Vandals. Frequently during 
this period, in order to save their own territories, the Eastern em- 
perors, by dishonorable inducements, persuaded the barbarians to 
direct their ravaging expeditions against the provinces of the West. 

Last Days of the Empire in the West. 

First Invasion of Italy by Alaric. — Only a few years had 
elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius, before the bar- 
barians were trooping in vast hordes through all the regions of the 
West. First, from Thrace and Moesia came the Visigoths, led by 
the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass of Thermopylae, 
and devastated almost the entire peninsula of Greece ; but, being 
driven from that country by Stilicho, the renowned Vandal gen- 
eral of Honorius, they crossed the Julian Alps, and spread terror 
throughout all Italy. Stilicho followed the barbarians cautiously, 
and, attacking them at a favorable moment, inflicted a terrible and 
double defeat upon them at Pollentia and Verona (a.d. 402-403). 
The captured camp was found filled with the spoils of Thebes, 
Corinth, and Sparta. Gathering the remnants of his shattered 
army, Alaric forced his way with difficulty through the defiles of 
the Alps, and escaped. 

Last Triumph at Rome (a.d. 404). — A terrible danger had 
been averted. All Italy burst forth in expressions of gratitude and 
joy. The days of the Cimbri and Teutones were recalled, and the 
name of Stilicho was pronounced with that of Marius. A magnifi- 
cent triumph at Rome celebrated the victory and the deliverance. 
It was the last triumph that Rome ever saw. Three hundred 
times — such is asserted to be the number — the Imperial City 
had witnessed the triumphal procession of her victorious generals, 
celebrating conquests in all quarters of the world. 

Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheatre. — The same 
year that marks the last military triumph at Rome also signahzes 
the last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheatre. It is to 



340 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

Christianity that the credit of the suppression of the inhuman 
exhibitions of the amphitheatre is entirely, or almost entirely, due. 
The pagan philosophers usually regarded them with indifference, 
often with favor. Thus Pliny commends a friend for giving a glad- 
iatorial entertainment at the funeral of his wife. And when the 
pagan moralists did condemn the spectacles, it was rather for other 
reasons than that they regarded them as inhuman and absolutely 
contrary to the rules of ethics. They were defended on the ground 
that they fostered a martial spirit among the people and inured 
the soldier to the sights of the battle-field. Hence gladia,torial 
games were actually exhibited to the legions before they set out 
on their campaigns. Indeed, all classes appear to have viewed 
the matter in much the same light, and with exactly the same 
absence of moral disapprobation, that we ourselves regard the 
slaughter of animals for food. 

But the Christian fathers denounced the combats as absolutely 
immoral, and labored in every possible way to create a public 
opinion against them. The members of their own body who 
attended the spectacles were excommunicated. At length, in 
A.D. 325, the first imperial edict against them was issued by 
Constantine. This decree appears to have been very little re- 
garded ; nevertheless, from this time forward the exhibitions were 
under something of a ban, until their final abolition was brought 
about by an incident of the games that closed the triumph 
of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian monk, 
named Telemachus, descending into the arena, rushed between 
the combatants, but was instantly killed by a shower of missiles 
thrown by the people, who were angered by this interruption of 
their sports. But the people soon repented of their act ; and 
Honorius himself, who was present, was moved by the scene. 
Christianity had awakened the conscience and touched the heart 
of Rome. The martyrdom of the monk led to an imperial edict 
" which abohshed forever the human sacrifices of the amphi- 
theatre." 

Invasion of Italy by Various German Tribes. — While Italy 



THE RANSOM OF ROME. 341 

was celebrating her triumph over the Goths, another and more 
formidable invasion was preparing in the North. The tribes be- 
yond the Rhine — the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, and 
other peoples — - driven onward by some unknown cause, poured 
in impetuous streams from the forests and morasses of Germany, 
and bursting the barriers of the Alps, overspread the devoted 
plains of Italy. The alarm caused by them among the Italians 
was even greater than that inspired by the Gothic invasion ; for 
Alaric was a Christian, while Radagaisus, the leader of the new 
hordes, was a superstitious savage, who paid worship to gods that 
required the bloody sacrifice of captive enemies. 

By such efforts as Rome put forth in the younger and more 
vigorous days of the republic, when Hannibal was at her gates, an 
army was now equipped and placed under the command of Stilicho. 
Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced as far as Florence, and 
were now besieging that place. StiHcho here surrounded the vast 
host — variously estimated from 200,000 to 400,000 men — and 
starved them into a surrender. Their chief, Radagaisus, was put 
to death, and great multitudes of the barbarians that the sword 
and famine had spared were sold as slaves (a.d. 406). 

The Ransom of Rome (a.d. 409). — Shortly after the victory 
of Stilicho over the German barbarians, he came under the suspi- 
cion of the weak and jealous Honorius, and was executed. Thus fell 
the great general whose sword and counsel had twice saved Rome 
from the barbarians, and who might again have averted similar 
dangers that were now at hand. Listening to the rash counsels of 
his unworthy advisers, Honorius provoked to revolt the 30,000 
Gothic mercenaries in the Roman legions by a massacre of their 
wives and children, who were held as hostages in the different 
cities of Italy. The Goths beyond the Alps joined with their 
kinsmen to avenge the perfidious act. Alaric again crossed the 
mountains, and pillaging the cities in his way, led his hosts to the 
very gates of Rome. Not since the time of the dread Hannibal 
(see p. 263) — more than six hundred years before — had Rome 
been insulted by the presence of a foreign foe beneath her walls. 



342 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

The barbarians laying siege to the city, famine soon forced the 
Romans to sue for terms of surrender. The ambassadors of the 
Senate, when they came before Alaric, began, in lofty language, 
to warn him not to render the Romans desperate by hard or 
dishonorable terms : their fury when driven to despair, they repre- 
sented, was terrible, and their number enormous. " The thicker 
the grass, the easier to mow it," was Alaric's derisive reply. The 
barbarian chieftain at length named the ransom that he would 
accept, and spare the city. Small as it comparatively was, the 
Romans were able to raise it only by the most extraordinary 
measures. The images of the gods were stripped of their orna- 
ments of gold and precious stones, and even the statues themselves 
were melted down. 

Sack of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 410). — Upon retiring from 
Rome, Alaric established his camp in Etruria. Here he was joined 
by great numbers of fugitive slaves, and by fresh accessions of bar- 
barians from beyond the Alps. The Gallic king now demanded 
for his followers lands of Honorius, but the emperor treated all the 
proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. Rome paid the 
penalty. Alaric turned upon the devoted city, determined upon 
its sack and plunder. The barbarians broke into the capital 
by night, " and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremen- 
dous sound of the Gothic trumpet." Precisely eight hundred years 
had passed since its sack by the Gauls. During that time the 
Imperial City had carried its victorious standards over three con- 
tinents, and had gathered within the temples of its gods and the 
palaces of its nobles the plunder of the world. Now it was given 
over for a spoil to the fierce tribes from beyond the Danube. 

Alaric commanded his soldiers to respect the lives of the peo- 
ple, and to leave untouched the treasures of the Christian temples ; 
but the wealth of the citizens he encouraged them to make their 
own. For six days and nights the rough barbarians trooped 
through the streets of the city on their mission of pillage. Their 
wagons were heaped with the costly furniture, the rich plate, and 
the silken garments stripped from the palaces of the wealthy 



EFFECTS OF THE DISASTER. 343 

patricians and the temples of the gods. Amidst the license of the 
sack, the barbarian instincts of the robbers broke loose from all 
restraint, and the city was everywhere wet with blood, while the 
nights were Hghted with burning buildings. 

Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. — The overwhelming 
disaster that had befallen the Imperial City produced a profound 
impression upon both Pagans and Christians throughout the Roman 
world. The former asserted that these unutterable calamities had 
fallen upon the Roman state because of the abandonment by the 
people of the worship of the gods of their forefathers, under whose 
protection and favor Rome had become the mistress of the world. 
The Christians, on the other hand, saw in the fall of the Eternal 
City the fulfilment of the prophecies against the Babylon of the 
Apocalypse. The latter interpretation of the appalling calamity 
gained credit amidst the panic and despair of the times. The 
temples of the once popular deities were deserted by their wor- 
shippers, who had lost faith in gods that could neither save them- 
selves nor protect their shrines from spoKation. " Henceforth," 
says Merivale, " the power of paganism was entirely broken, and 
the indications which occasionally meet us of its continued exist- 
ence are rare and trifling. Christianity stepped into its deserted 
inheritance. The Christians occupied the temples, transforming 
them into churches." 

The Death of Alaric. — After withdrawing his warriors from 
Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved slowly on, 
they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains with the rich 
spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other districts of 
Southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the rough bar- 
barians spread rare banquets from the stores of their well-filled 
cellars, and drank from jewelled cups the famed Falernian wine. 

Alaric led his soldiers to the extreme southern point of Italy, 
intending to cross the Straits of Messina into Sicily, and, after sub- 
duing that island, to carry his conquests into the provinces of 
Africa. His designs were frustrated by his death, which occurred 
A.D. 412. With religious care his followers . secured the body of 



344 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

their hero against violation by his enemies. The little river Busen- 
tinus, in Northern Bruttium, was turned from its course with great 
labor, and in the bed of the stream was constructed a tomb, in 
which was placed the body of the king, with his jewels and tro- 
phies. The river was then restored to its old channel, and, that 
the exact spot might never be known, the prisoners who had been 
forced to do the work were all put to death. 

The Barbarians Seize the Western Provinces. — We must now 
turn our eyes from Rome and Italy to observe the movement of 
events in the provinces. In his efforts to defend Italy, Stihcho 
had withdrawn the last legion from Britain, and had drained the 
camps and fortresses of Gaul. The Wall of Antoninus was left 
unmanned ; the passages of the Rhine were left unguarded ; and 
the agitated multitudes of barbarians beyond these defences were 
free to pour their innumerable hosts into all the fair provinces of 
the empire. Hordes of Suevi, Alani, Vandals, and Burgundians 
overspread all the plains and valleys of Gaul. The Vandals 
pushed on into the south of Spain, and there occupied a large 
tract of country, which, in its present name of Andalusia, preserves 
the memory of its barbarian settlers. From these regions they 
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, overran the Roman provinces of 
Northern Africa, captured Carthage (a.d. 439), and made that 
city the seat of the dread empire of the Vandals. The Goths, 
with Italy pillaged, recrossed the Alps, and establishing their 
camps in the south of Gaul and the north of Spain, set up in 
those regions what is known as the Kingdom of the Visigoths. 

In Britain, upon the withdrawal of the Roman legions, the Picts 
breaking over the Wall of Antoninus, descended upon and pillaged 
the cities of the South. The half- Romanized and effeminate pro- 
vincials — no match for their hardy kinsmen who had never bowed 
their necks to the yoke of Rome — were driven to despair by the 
ravages of their relentless enemies, and, in their helplessness, in- 
vited to their aid the Angles and Saxons from the shores of the 
North Sea. These people came in their rude boats, drove back 
the invaders, and, being pleased with the soil and climate of the 



INVASION OF THE HUNS. 345 

island, took possession of the country for themselves, and became 
the ancestors of the English people. 

Invasion of the Huns : Battle of Chalons. — The barbarians 
that were thus overrunning and parcelling out the inheritance of 
the dying empire were now, in turn, pressed upon and terrified by 
a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes than were they in 
the sight of the peoples among whom they had thrust themselves. 
These were the non- Aryan Huns, of whom we have already caught 
a glimpse as they drove the panic-stricken Goths across the Dan- 
ube. At this time their leader was Attila, whom the affrighted in- 
habitants of Europe called the " Scourge of God." It was declared 
that the grass never grew again where once the hoof of Attila's 
horse had trod. 

Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern emperor, and exacted 
tribute from the court of Constantinople. Finally he turned west- 
ward, and, at the head of a host numbering, it is asserted, 700,000 
warriors, crossed the Rhine into Gaul, purposing first to ravage 
that province, and then to traverse Italy with fire and sword, in 
order to destroy the last vestige of the Roman power. 

The Romans and their Gothic conquerors laid aside their ani- 
mosities, and made common cause against ' the common enemy. 
The Visigoths were rallied by their king, Theodoric ; the Italians, 
the Franks, the Burgundians, flocked to the standard of the Roman 
general Aetius. Attila drew up his mighty hosts upon the plain 
of Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there awaited the onset of 
the Romans and their alHes. The conflict was long and terrible. 
Theodoric was slain ; but at last fortune turned against the barba- 
rians. The loss of the Huns is variously estimated at from 100,000 
to 300,000 warriors. Attila succeeded in escaping from the field, 
and retreated with his shattered hosts across the Rhine (a.d. 

451)- 

This great victory is placed among the significant events of his- 
tory ; for it decided that the Christian Germanic races, and not 
the pagan Scythic Huns, should inherit the dominions of the ex- " 
piring Roman Empire, and control the destinies of Europe. 



346 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

The Death of Attila. — The year after his defeat at Chalons, 
Attila again crossed the Alps, and burned or plundered all the 
important cities of Northern Italy. The Veneti fled for safety to 
the morasses at the head of the Adriatic (a.d. 452). Upon the 
islets where they built their rude dwellings, there grew up in time 
the city of Venice, the "eldest daughter of the Roman Empire," 
the " Carthage of the Middle xA.ges." 

The conqueror threatened Rome ; but Leo the Great, bishop 
of the capital, went with an embassy to the camp of Attila, and 
pleaded for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila the fact 
that death had overtaken the impious Alaric soon after he had 
given the Imperial City to be sacked, and warned him not to call 
down upon himself the like judgment of heaven. To these ad- 
monitions of the Christian bishop was added the persuasion of a 
golden bribe from the Emperor Valentinian ; and Attila was in- 
duced to spare Southern Italy, and to lead his warriors back beyond 
the Alps. Shortly after he had crossed the Danube, he died sud- 
denly in his camp. His followers gradually withdrew from Europe 
into the wilds of their native Scythia, or were absorbed by the 
peoples they had conquered. 

Sack of Rome by the Vandals (a.d. 455). — Rotne had been 
saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new de- 
struction was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from the 
South. Africa sent out another enemy whose greed for plunder 
proved more fatal to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. 
The kings of the Vandal Empire in Northern Africa had acquired 
as perfect a supremacy in the Western Mediterranean as Carthage 
ever enjoyed in the days of her commercial pride. Vandal cor- 
sairs swept the seas and harassed the coasts of Sicily and Italy, 
and even plundered the maritime towns of the Eastern provinces. 
In the year 455 a Vandal fleet, led by the dread Genseric, sailed 
up the Tiber. 

Panic seized the people ; for the name of Vandal was pro- 
nounced with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, 
who had once before saved his flock from the fury of an Attila, 



FALL OF THE EMPLRE IN THE WEST. 347 

went forth to intercede in the name of Christ for the Imperial 
City. Genseric granted to the pious bishop the hves of the citi- 
zens, but said that the plunder of the capital belonged to his war- 
riors. For fourteen days and nights the city was given over to the 
ruthless barbarians. The ships of the Vandals, which almost hid 
with their number the waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had been 
the wagons of the Goths before them, with the rich and weighty 
spoils of the capital. Palaces were stripped of their ornaments 
and furniture, and the walls of the temples denuded of their 
statues and of the trophies of a hundred Roman victories.' From 
the Capitoline sanctuary were borne off the golden candlestick 
and other sacred articles that Titus had stolen from the Temple 
at Jerusalem. 

The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were 
ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Carthage,^ bear- 
ing, besides the plunder of the city, more than 30,000 of the 
inhabitants as slaves. Carthage, through her own barbarian con- 
querors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The mournful 
presentiment of Scipio had fallen true (see p. 271). The cruel 
fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged city 
that the Vandals left behind them. 

Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 476). — Only the 
shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. All the prov- 
inces — Illyricum, Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Africa — were in the 
hands of the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Burgundians, the 
Angles and Saxons, and various other intruding tribes. Italy, as 
well as Rome herself, had become again and again the spoil of the 
insatiable barbarians. The story of the twenty years following the 
sack of the capital by Genseric affords only a repetition of the 
events we have been narrating. During these years several pup- 

1 The fleet was overtaken by a storm and sufifered some damage, but the 
most precious of the relics it bore escaped harm. "The golden candlestick 
reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, and lodged in Con- 
stantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superstitious motives, in 
Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost." — Merivale. 



348 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

pet emperors were set up by the different leaders of the invading 
tribes. A final seditious movement placed upon the shadow- 
throne a child of six years, named Romulus Augustus. Chiefly 
because of the imperial farce he was forced to play, this child- 
emperor became known as Augustulus, "the little Augustus." He 
had reigned only a year, when Odoacer, the leader of a tribe of 
German mercenaries, dethroned him, and abolishing the title of 
emperor, took upon himself the government of Italy. 

The Roman Senate now sent an embassy to Constantinople, 
with the royal vestments and the insignia of the imperial office, to 
represent to the Emperor Zeno that the West was willing to give 
up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request that the 
German chief, with the title of " Patrician," might rule Italy as 
his viceroy. This was granted ; and Italy now became in effect 
a province of the Empire in the East (a.d. 476). The Roman 
Empire in the West had come to an end, after an existence from 
the founding of Rome of 1229 years. 



FINAL PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



349 



ROMAN EMPERORS FROM COMMODUS TO ROMULUS 

AUGUSTUS. 
(a.d. 180-476.) 



Commodus 

Pertinax 

Didius Julianus .... 
Septimius Severus . . 

j Caracalla 

( Geta 

Macrinus 

Elagabalus 

Alexander Severus . . . 

Maximin 

Gordian III 

Philip 

Decius 

Period of the Thirty Tyrants 

Claudius 

Aurelian 

Tacitus 

Probus 

Carus 

f Carinus 

I Numerian 



A.D. 
180-192 

193 
193-21 I 
2II-2I7 

2II-2I2 
217-218 
218-222 
222-235 

235-238 
238-244 
244-249 
249-251 
251-268 
268-270 
270-275 
275-276 
276-282 
282-283 
283-284 
283-284 



r Diocletian 284-305 

I Maximian 286-305 

/ Constantius 1 305-306 

'. Galerius 305-311 

Constantine the Great . . 306-337 

Reigns as sole ruler . - . 323-337 

Constantine II 337-340 

Constans 1 337-350 

Constantius II 337-3^1 

Reigns as sole ruler . . 350-361 
Julian the Apostate . . . 361-363 
Jovian 363-364 

Valentinian 1 364-375 

Valens (in the East) . . 364-378 

Gratian ll^-Z'^Z 

Maximus 383-388 

Valentinian II 375-392 

Eugenius 392-394 

Theodosius the Great . . . 379-395 

Reigns as sole emperor . 394-395 



FINAL PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

(A.D. 395.) 



EMPERORS IN THE EAST. 
(From A.D. 395 to Fall of Rome.) 

A.D. 

Arcadius 395-408 

Theodosius II 408-450 

Marcian 450-457 

Leo I 457-474 

Zeno 474-491 



EMPERORS IN THE WEST. 

A.D. 

Honorius 395-423 

Valentinian III 425-455 

Maximus 455 

Avitus 455-456 

Count Ricimer creates and 

deposes emperors . . . 456-472 
Romulus Augustus .... 475-476 



350 ARCHITECTURE. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE 
AMONG THE ROMANS. 

I . Architecture. 

Greek Origin of Roman Architecture : the Arch. — The archi- 
tecture of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of Greek 
models. But the Romans were not mere servile imitators. They 
not only modified the architectural forms they borrowed, but they 
gave their structures a distinct character by the prominent use of 
the arch, which the Greek and Oriental builders seldom employed, 
though they were acquainted with its properties. By means of it 
the Roman builders vaulted the roofs of the largest buildings, 
carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest valleys, and 
spanned the broadest streams with bridges that have resisted all 
the assaults of time and flood to the present day. 

Sacred Edifices. — The temples of the Romans were in general 
so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take time and 
space to enter into a particular description of them. Mention, 
however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as this 
was a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best repre- 
sentative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon at Rome, 
which has come down to our own times in a state of wonderful 
preservation. This structure is about 140 feet in diameter. The 
immense stone dome which vaults the building, is one of the 
boldest pieces of masonry executed by the master-builders of 
the world. 

Circuses, Theatres, and Amphitheatres. — The circuses of the 
Romans were what we should call race-courses. There were 
several at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus, 



352 ARCHITECTURE. 

which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins, and afterwards 
enlarged as the population of the capital increased, until it was 
capable of holding two or three hundred thousand spectators. 

The Romans borrowed the plan of their theatres from the 
Greeks ; their amphitheatres, however, were original with them. 
The Flavian Amphitheatre, known as the Colosseum, has already 
come under our notice (see p. 316). The edifice was 574 feet 
in its greatest diameter, and was capable of seating eighty-seven 
thousand spectators. The ruins of this immense structure stand 
to-day as " the embodiment of the power and splendor of the 
Roman Empire." 

Aqueducts. — The aqueducts of ancient Rome were among the 
most important of the utilitarian works of the Romans. The 
water-system of the capital was commenced by Appius Claudius 
(about 313 B.C.), who secured the building of an aqueduct which 
led water into the city from the Sabine hills. During the republic 
four aqueducts in all were completed ; under the emperors the 
number was increased td nineteen.^ The longest of these was 
about fifty-five miles in length. The aqueducts usually ran be- 
neath the surface, but when a depression was to be crossed, they 
were lifted on arches, which sometimes were over one hundred 
feet high. These lofty arches running in long broken lines over 
the plains beyond the walls of Rome, are the most striking feature 
of the Campagna at the present time. 

Thermae, or Baths. — The greatest demand upon the streams 
of water poured into Rome by the aqueducts was made by the 
Thermse, or baths. Among the ancients Romans, bathing, re- 
garded at first simply as a troublesome necessity, became in time a 
luxurious art. Under the republic, bathing-houses were erected in 
considerable numbers. But it was during the imperial period that 
those magnificent structures to which the name of Thermae prop- 
erly attaches, were erected. These edifices were among the most 
elaborate and expensive of the imperial works. They contained 
chambers for cold, hot, tepid, sudatory, and swimming baths ; 

^ Several of these are still in use. 



MEMORIAL AR CHI TE C T URE. 



353 



dressing-rooms and gymnasia j museums and libraries ; covered 
colonnades for lounging and conversation, extensive grounds filled 
with statues and traversed by pleasant walks ; and every other 
adjunct that could add to the sense of luxury and relaxation. Be- 
ing intended to exhibit the liberality of their builders, they were 
thrown open to the public free of charge. 

Memorial Architecture. — Among the memorial structures of 
the Romans, their triumphal arches are especially characteristic. 




ARCH OF CONSTANTINE. 

These were modelled after the city gates, being constructed with 
single and with triple archways. Two of the most noted monu- 
ments of this character, and the most interesting because of their 
historic connections, are the Arch of Titus (see p. 315) and the 
Arch of Constantine, both of which are still standing. The Arch 
of Constantine was intended to commemorate the victory of that 
emperor over his rival Maxentius, which event established Chris- 
tianity as the imperial and favored religion of the empire. 



354 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW. 

2. Literature, Philosophy, and Law. 

Relation of Roman to Greek Literature : the Poets of the 
Republican Era. — Latin literature was almost wholly imitative 
or borrowed, being a reproduction of Greek models ; still it per- 
formed a most important service for civilization : it was the medium 
for the dissemination throughout the world of the rich literary- 
treasures of Greece. 

It was the dramatic productions of the Greeks which were first 
studied and copied at Rome. Livius Andronicus, Nsevius, En- 
nius, Plautus, and Terence, all of whom wrote under the repub- 
lic, are the most noted of the Roman dramatists. Most of their 
plays were simply adaptations or translations of Greek master- 
pieces. 

Lucilius (born 148 b.c.) was one of the greatest of Roman 
satirists. The later satirists of the corrupt imperial era were his 
imitators. Besides Lucilius, there appeared during the later re- 
publican era only two other poets of distinguished merit, Lucre- 
tius and Catullus. Lucretius (95-51 b.c.) was an evolutionist, 
and in his great poem, On the Nature of Things, we find antici- 
pated many of the conclusions of modern scientists. 

Poets of the Augustan Age. — We have in another place (see 
p. 307) spoken of the effects of the fall of the republic upon the 
development of Latin literature. Many, who if the republican 
institutions had continued would have been absorbed in the affairs 
of state, were led, by the change of government, to seek solace 
for their disappointed hopes, and employment for their enforced 
leisure, in the graceful labors of elegant composition. Four names 
have cast an unfading lustre over the period covered by the reign 
of Augustus, — Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy. So distinguished 
have these writers rendered the age in which they lived, that any 
period in a people's literature marked by unusual hterary taste 
and refinement is called, in allusion to the Roman era, an Augus- 
tan Age. Of the three poets, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, a word 



SATIRE AND SATIRISTS. 355 

has already been said ; of Livy we shall find place to say some- 
thing a little later, under the head of the Roman historians. 

Satire and Satirists. — Satire thrives best in the reeking soil 
and tainted atmosphere of an age of selfishness, immorality, and 
vice. Such an age was that which followed the Augustan era 
at Rome. The throne was held by such imperial monsters as 
Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. The profligacy of fashionable life 
at the capital and the various watering-places of the empire, and 
the degradation of the court gave venom and point to the shafts 
of those who were goaded by the spectacle into attacking the 
immoralities and vices which were silently yet rapidly sapping the 
foundations of both society and state. Hence arose a succession 
of writers whose mastery of sharp and stinging satire has caused 
their productions to become the models of all subsequent attempts 
in the same species of literature. Two names stand out in special 
prominence — Persius and Juvenal, who lived and wrote during 
the last half of the first and the beginning of the second century 
of our era. 

Oratory among the Romans. — " Public oratory," as has been 
truly said, "is the child of political freedom, and cannot exist 
without it." We have seen this illustrated in the history of repub- 
lican Athens. Equally well is the same truth exemplified by the 
records of the Roman state. All the great orators of Rome arose 
under the republic. 

Roman oratory was senatorial, popular, or judicial. These 
different styles of eloquence were represented by the grave and 
dignified debates of the Senate, the impassioned and often noisy 
and inelegant harangues of the Forum, and the learned pleadings 
or ingenious appeals of the courts. Among the orators of ancient 
Rome, Hortensius, (114-50 B.C.), an eloquent advocate, and 
Cicero (106-43 ^-C-) are easily first. 

Historians. — Ancient Rome produced four writers of history 
whose works have won for them a permanent fame — Caesar, Sal- 
lust, Livy, and Tacitus. Of Caesar and his Commentaries on the 
Gallic War, we have learned in a previous chapter. His Com- 



356 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW. 

rnentaries will always be mentioned with the Anabasis of Xeno- 
phon, as a model of the narrative style of writing. Sallust (86-34 
B.C.) was the contemporary and friend of Caesar. The two works 
upon which his fame rests are the Conspii^acy of Catiline and the 
Jugurthine Wa?-. 

Livy (59 B.C. — A.D. 17) was one of the brightest ornaments of 
the Augustan age. Herodotus among the ancient, and Macaulay 
among the modern, writers of historical narrative, are the names 
with which his is most frequently compared. His greatest work 
is his Annals, a history of Rome from the earliest times to the 
year 9 B.C. Unfortunately, all sa.ve thirty-five of the books ^ — the 
work filled one hundred and forty- two volumes — perished during 
the disturbed period that followed the overthrow of the empire. 
Many have been the laments over " the lost books of Livy." As 
a chronicle of actual events, Livy's history, particularly in its 
earlier parts, is very unreliable ; however, it is invaluable as an ac- 
count of what the Romans themselves believed respecting the 
origin of their race, the founding of their city, and the deeds 
and virtues of their forefathers. 

The most highly prized work of Tacitus is his Germania, a 
treatise on the manners and customs of the Germans. Tacitus 
dwells with delight upon the simple life of the uncivilized Ger- 
mans, and sets their virtues in strong contrast with the immorali- 
ties of the refined and cultured Romans. 

Ethics, Science, and Philosophy. — Under this head may be 
grouped the names of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Marcus Aurelius, 
and Epictetus. Seneca (about a.d. 1-65), moralist and philoso- 
pher, has already come to our notice as the tutor of Nero (see 
p. 312). He was a disbeliever in the popular religion of his 
countrymen, and entertained conceptions of God and his moral 

1 It should be borne in mind that a book in the ancient sense was simply 
a roll of manuscript or parchment, and contained nothing like the amount 
of matter held by an ordinary modern volume. Thus Csesar's Gallic Wars, 
which makes a single volume of moderate size with us, made eight Roman 
books. 



ETHICS, SCIENCE, AND PHIIOSOPHY. 



357 




government not very different from the doctrines of Socrates. 
Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23-79) is almost the only Roman who won 
renown as a nat- 
uralist. The only 
work of his that 
has been spared 
to us is his Natu- 
ral History, a sort 
ot " Roman Ency- 
clopaedia," embra- 
cing thirty-seven 
books. 

Marcus Aurelius 
the emperor and 
Epictetus the slave 
hold prominent /' 
places among the 
ethical teachers of 
Rome. Of the 
emperor as a phi- 
losopher we have 
already spoken 
(see p. 321). 

Epictetus (b. about 60 a.d.) was for many years a slave at the 
capital ; but, securing in some way his freedom, he became a 
teacher of philosophy. Epictetus and Aurehus were the last emi- 
nent representatives and expositors of the philosophy of Zeno. 
Christianity, giving a larger place to the affections than did 
Stoicism, was already fast winning the hearts of men. 

Writers of the Early Latin Church. — The Christian authors 
of the first three centuries, like the writers of the New Testament, 
employed the Greek, that being the language of learning and cul- 
ture. As the Latin tongue, however, came into more general use 
throughout the extended provinces of the Roman empire, the 
Christian authors naturally began to use the same in the composi- 



# 



SENECA. 



358 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW. 

tion of their works. Hence, almost all the writings of the Fathers 
of the Church, produced during the last two centuries of the 
empire, were composed in Latin. Among the many names that 
adorn the Church literature of this period may be mentioned Saint 
Jerome and Saint Augustine, — the former celebrated for his trans- 
lation of the Scriptures into Latin,^ and the latter for his " City of 
God." This was truly a wonderful work. It was written just 
when Rome was becoming the spoil of the barbarians, and was 
designed to answer the charge of the pagans that Christianity, 
turning the hearts of the people away from the worship of the 
ancient gods, was the cause of the calamities that were befalling 
the Roman state. 

Roman Law and Law Literature. — Although the Latin writers 
in all the departments of literary effort which we have so far 
reviewed did much valuable work, yet the Roman intellect in all 
these directions was under Greek guidance. Its work was largely 
imitative. But in another department it was different. We mean, 
of course, the field of legal and political science. Here the Ro- 
mans ceased to be pupils, and became teachers. Nations, like men, 
have their mission. Rome's mission was to give laws to the world. 

In the year 527 a.d. Justinian became emperor of the Roman 
empire in the East. He almost immediately appointed a commis- 
sion, headed by the great lawyer Tribonian, to collect and arrange 
in a systematic manner the immense mass of Roman laws, and 
the writings of the jurists. The undertaking was like that of the 
Decemvirs in connection with the Twelve Tables (see p. 236), 
only far greater. The result of the work of the commission was 
what is known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, or "Body of the Civil 
Law." This consisted of three parts : the Code, the Pandects 
and the Institutes? The Code was a revised and compressed col- 
lection of all the laws, instructions to judicial officers, and opinions 
on legal subjects, promulgated by the different emperors since 

1 The Vulgate, which is the version still used in the Roman Catholic Church. 

2 A later work called the Novels comprised the laws of Justinian subsequent 
to the completion of the Code. 



EDUCATION. 359 

the time of Hadrian ; the Pandects (all-containing) were a digest 
or abridgment of the writings, opinions, and decisions of the most 
eminent of the old Roman jurists and lawyers. The Institutes 
were a condensed edition of the Pandects, and were intended to 
form an elementary text-book for the use of students in the great 
law-schools of the empire. 

The Body of the Roman Law thus preserved and transmitted 
was the great contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization. It 
has exerted a profound influence upon all the law-systems of 
Europe. Thus does the once httle Palatine city of the Tiber still 
rule the world. The religion of Judea, the arts of Greece, and 
the laws of Rome are three very real and potent elements in 
modern civihzation. 

3. Social Life. 

Education. — Roman children were subject in an extraordinary 
manner to their father (^paterfamilias). They were regarded as 
his property, and their life and liberty were in general at his abso- 
lute disposal. This power he exercised by usually drowning at 
birth the deformed or sickly child. Even the married son re- 
mained legally subject to his father, who could banish him, sell 
him as a slave, or even put him to death. It should be said, how- 
ever, that the right of putting to death was seldom exercised, and 
that in the time of the empire the law put some Hmitations upon it. 

The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the 
Greek youth in being more practical. The Laws of the Twelve 
Tables were committed to memory ; and rhetoric and oratory were 
given special attention, as a mastery of the art of pubhc speaking 
was an almost indispensable acquirement for the Roman citizen 
who aspired to take a prominent part in the affairs of state. 

After the conquest of Magna Grsecia and of Greece, the Romans 
were brought into closer relations than had hitherto existed with 
Greek culture. The Roman youth were taught the language of 
Athens, often to the neglect, it appears, of their native tongue. 
Young men belonging to families of means, not unusually went to 



360 SOCIAL LIFE. 

Greece, just as the graduates of our schools go to Europe, to finish 
their education. Many of the most prominent statesmen of Rome, 
as for instance Cicero and Juhus Caesar, received the advantages 
of this higher training in the schools of Greece. 

Somewhere between the age of fourteen and eighteen the boy 
exchanged his purple-hemmed toga, or gown, for one of white 
wool, which was in all places and at all times the significant badge 
of Roman citizenship. 

Social Position of Woman. — Until after her marriage, the 
daughter of the family was kept in almost Oriental seclusion. 
Marriage gave her a certain freedom. She might now be present 
at the races of the circus and the various shows of the theatre and 
the arena, a privilege rarely accorded to her before marriage. In 
the early virtuous period of the Roman state, divorce was unusual, 
but in later and more degenerate times, it became very common. 
The husband had the right to divorce his wife for the slightest 
cause, or for no cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity of 
the family relation, may doubtless be found one cause of the 
degeneracy and failure of the Roman stock. 

Public Amusements. — The entertainments of the theatre, the 
games of the circus, and the combats of the amphitheatre were 
the three principal public amusements of the Romans. These 
entertainments in general increased in popularity as liberty de- 
clined, the great festive gatherings at the various places of amuse- 
ment taking the place of the political assembhes of the republic. 
The public exhibitions under the empire were, in a certain sense, 
the compensation which the emperors offered the people for their 
surrender of the right of participation in public affairs, — and the 
people were content to accept the exchange. 

Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome : the people 
saw too much real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheatre 
to care much for the make-believe tragedies of the stage. The 
entertainments of the theatres usually took the form of comedies, 
farces, and pantomimes. The last were particularly popular, both 
because the vast size of the theatres made it quite impossible for 



GLADIATORIAL COMBATS. 361 

the actor to make his voice heard throughout the structure, and 
for the reason that the language of signs was the only language 
that could be readily understood by an audience made up of so 
many different nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage. 

More important and more popular than the entertainments of 
the theatre were the various games, especially the chariot races, of 
the circus. But surpassing in their terrible fascination all other 
public amusements were the animal-baitings and the gladiatorial 
combats of the arena. 

The beasts required for the baitings were secured in different 
parts of the world, and transported to Rome and the other cities 
of the empire at an enormous expense. The wildernesses of 
Northern Europe furnished bears and wolves ; Africa contributed 
lions, crocodiles, and leopards ; Asia elephants and tigers. These 
creatures were pitted against one another in every conceivable 
way. Often a promiscuous multitude would be turned loose in 
the arena at once. But even the terrific scene that then ensued, 
became at last too tame to stir the blood of the Roman populace. 
Hence a new species of show was introduced, and grew rapidly 
into favor with the spectators of the amphitheatre. This was the 
gladiatorial combat. 

The Gladiatorial Combats. — Gladiatorial games seem to have 
had their origin in Etruria, whence they were brought to Rome. 
It was a custom among the early Etruscans to slay prisoners upon 
the warrior's grave, it being thought that the spirit of the dead 
delighted in the blood of such victims. In time the, condemned 
prisoners were allowed to fight and kill one another, this being 
deemed more humane than their cold-blooded slaughter. Thus it 
happened that sentiments of humanity gave rise to an institution 
which, afterwards perverted, became the most inhuman of any 
that ever existed among a civilized people. 

The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by two 
sons at the funeral of their father, in the year 264 B.C. This exhi- 
bition was arranged in one of the forums, as there were at that 
time no amphitheatres in existence. From this time the pubHc 



362 



SOCIAL LIFE. 



taste for this species of entertainment grew rapidly, and by the 
beginning of the imperial period had mounted into a perfect pas- 
sion. It was now no longer the manes of the dead, but the spirits 
of the living, that they were intended to appease. At first the 
combatants were slaves, captives, or condemned criminals ; but at 
last knights, senators, and even women descended into the arena. 
Training-schools were established at Rome, Capua, Ravenna, and 
other cities. Free citizens often sold themselves to the keepers 
of these seminaries ; and to them flocked desperate men of all 
classes, and ruined spendthrifts of the noblest patrician houses. 
Slaves and criminals were encouraged to become proficient in 
this art by the promise of freedom if they survived the combats 

beyond a certain number 
of years. 

Sometimes the gladiators 
fought in pairs ; again great 
companies engaged at once 
in the deadly fray. They 
fought in chariots, on horse- 
back, on foot — in ail the 
ways that soldiers were ac- 
customed to fight in actual 
battle. The contestants 
were armed with lances, 
swords, daggers, tridents, and every manner of weapon. Some 
were provided with nets and lassos, with which they entangled 
their adversaries, and then slew them. 

The life of a wounded gladiator was in the hands of the audi- 
ence. If in response to his appeal for mercy, which was made by 
outstretching the forefinger, the spectators reached out their hands 
with thumbs turned down, that indicated that his prayer had been 
heard and that the sword was to be sheathed ; but if they ex- 
tended their hands with thumbs turned up, that was the signal for 
the victor to complete his work upon his wounded foe. Some- 
times the dying were aroused and forced on to the fight by burn- 
ing with a hot iron. The dead bodies were dragged from the 




GLADIATORS, (After an old Mosaic.) 



DISTRIBUTION OF CORM. 363 

arena with hooks, like the carcasses of animals, a,nd the pools of 
blood soaked up with dry sand. 

These shows increased to such an extent that they entirely over- 
shadowed the entertainments of the circus and the theatre. Am- 
bitious officials and commanders arranged such spectacles in order 
to curry favor with the masses ; magistrates were expected to give 
them in connection with the public festivals ; the heads of aspiring 
families exhibited them " in order to acquire social position " ; 
wealthy citizens prepared them as an indispensable feature of a 
fashionable banquet ; the children caught the spirit of their elders 
and imitated them in their plays. The demand for gladiators was 
met by the training-schools ; the managers of these hired out 
bands of trained men, that travelled through the country like 
opera troupes among us, and gave exhibitions in private houses 
or in the provincial amphitheatres. 

The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years 
of the repubhc tended greatly to increase the number of gladiato- 
rial shows, as hberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure 
passport to popular favor. It was reserved for the emperors, how- 
ever, to exhibit them on a truly imperial scale. Titus, upon the 
dedication of the Flavian Amphitheatre, provided games, mostly 
gladiatorial combats, that lasted one hundred days. Trajan cele- 
brated his victories with shows that continued still longer, in the 
progress of which 10,000 gladiators fought upon the arena, and 
more than that number of wild beasts were slain. (For the sup- 
pression of the gladiatorial games, see p. 339.) 

State Distribution of Corn. — The free distribution of corn at 
Rome has been characterized as the "' leading fact of Roman hfe." 
It will be recalled that this pernicious practice had its beginnings 
in the legislation of Caius Gracchus (see p. 276). Just before the 
establishment of the empire, over 300,000 Roman citizens were 
recipients of this state bounty. In the time of the Antonines the 
number is asserted to have been even larger. The corn for this 
enormous distribution was derived in large part from a grain tribute 
exacted of the African and other corn-producing provinces. The 



364 SOCIAL LIFE. 

evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can hardly 
be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices were fos- 
tered to such a degree that we probably shall not be wrong in 
enumerating the practice as one of the most prominent causes of 
the demoraHzation of society at Rome under the emperors. 

Slavery. — A still more demoralizing element in Roman life 
than that of the state largesses of corn, was the institution of 
slavery. The number of slaves in the Roman state under the 
later republic and the earlier empire was probably as great or 
even greater than the number of freemen. The love of ostenta- 
tion led to the multiplication of offices in the households of the 
wealthy, and the employment of a special slave for every different 
kind of work. Thus there was the slave called the sandalio, whose 
sole duty it was to care for his master's sandals ; and another, 
called the nomenclator, whose exclusive business it was to accom- 
pany his master when he went upon the street, and give him the 
names of such persons as he ought to recognize. The price of 
slaves varied from a few dollars to ten or twenty thousand dollars, 
— these last figures being of course exceptional. Greek slaves 
were the most valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them 
serviceable in positions calling for special talent. 

The slave class was chiefly recruited, as in Greece, by war, and 
by the practice of kidnapping. Some of the outlying provinces in 
Asia and Africa were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. 
Delinquent tax payers were often sold as slaves, and frequently 
poor persons sold themselves into servitude. 

Slaves were treated better under the empire than under the 
later repubhc (see p. 273), a change to be attributed doubtless 
to the softening influence of the Stoical philosophy and of Chris- 
tianity. The feeling entertained towards this unfortunate class in 
the later republican period is illustrated by Varro's classification 
of slaves as " vocal agricultural implements," and again by Cato 
the Elder's recommendation that old and worn-out slaves be sold, 
as a matter of economy. Sick and hopelessly infirm slaves were 
taken to an island in the Tiber and left there to die of starvation 



SLA VER V. 



365 



and exposure. In many cases, as a measure of precaution, the 
slaves were forced to work in chains, and to sleep in subterranean 
prisons. Their bitter hatred towards their masters, engendered by 
harsh treatment, is witn^essed by the well-known proverb, " As 
many enemies as slaves," and by the servile revolts and wars of 
the republican period. But from the first century of the empire 
there is observable a growing sentiment of humanity towards the 
bondsman. Imperial edicts take away from the master the right 
to kill his slave, or to sell him to the trader in gladiators, or even 
to treat him with any undue severity. This marks the beginning 
of a slow reform which in the course of ten or twelve centuries 
resulted in the complete abolition of slavery in Christian Europe. 




SARCOPHAGUS OF CORNELIUS SCIPIO BARBATUS (Consul 298 B.C.)- 



Part II. 

medijEVAl and modern history. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Divisions of the Subject. — As we have aheady noted, the 
fourteen centuries smce the fall of the Roman empire in the West 
(a.d. 476) are usually divided into two periods, — the Middle Ages, 
or the period lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery of 
America by Columbus in 1492, and the Modern Age, which ex- 
tends from the latter event to the present time. The Middle 
Ages, again, naturally subdivide into two periods, — the Dark 
Ages, and the Age of Revival ; while the Modern Age also falls 
into two divisions, — the Era of the Protestant Refoimation, and 
the Era of the Political Revolution. 

Chief Characteristics of the Four Periods. — The so-called 
Dark Ages embrace the years intervening between the fall of 
Rome and the opening of the eleventh century. The period was 
one of origins, — of the beginnings of peoples and languages and 
institutions. During this time arose the Papacy and Feudalism, 
the two great institutions of the Mediaeval Ag^s. 

The Age of Revival begins with the opening of the eleventh 
century, and ends with the discovery of America by Columbus in 
1492. During all this time civilization was making slow but sure 
advances. The last century of the period, especially, was marked 
by a great revival of classical learning (known as the Renaissance, 
or New Birth), by improvements, inventions, and discoveries, 
which greatly stirred men's minds, and awakened them as from a 
sleep. The Crusades, or Holy Wars, were the most remarkable 
undertakings of the age. 



THE FALL OF ROME. 367 

The Era of the Reformation embraces the sixteenth century 
and the first half of the seventeenth. The period is characterized 
by the great rehgious movement known as the Reformation, and 
the tremendous struggle between Cathohcism and Protestantism. 
Almost all the wars of the period were religious wars. The last 
great combat was the Thirty Years' War in Germany, which was 
closed by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. After 
this date the disputes and wars between parties and nations were 
political rather than religious in character. 

.The Era of the Political Revolution extends from the Peace of 
Westphalia to the present time. This age is especially marked by 
the great conflict between despotic and liberal principles of gov- 
ernment, resulting in the triumph of democratic ideas. The 
central event of the period is the French Revolution. 

Having now made a general survey of the ground we are to 
traverse, we must return to our starting-point, — the fall of Rome. 

Relation of the Fall of Rome to World-History. — The ca- 
lamity which in the fifth century befell the Roman empire in the 
West is sometimes represented as having destroyed the treasures 
of the Old World. It was not so. All that was really valuable in 
the accumulations of antiquity escaped harm, and became sooner 
or later the possession of the succeeding ages. The catastrophe 
simply prepared the way for the shifting of the scene of civiliza- 
tion from the south to the north of Europe, simply transferred at 
once poHtical power, and gradually social and intellectual pre- 
eminence, from one branch of the Aryan family to another, — 
from the Graeco-Italic to the Teutonic. 

The event was not an unrelieved calamity, because, fortunately, 
the floods that seemed to be sweeping so much away were not the 
mountain torrent, which covers fruitful fields with worthless drift, 
but the overflowing Nile with its rich deposits. Over all the 
regions covered by the barbarian inundation a new stratum of 
population was deposited, a new soil formed that was capable 
of nourishing a better civilization than any the world had yet 
seen. 



368 INTRODUCTION. 

The Three Elements of Civilization. — We must now notice 
what survived the catastrophe of the fifth century, what it was that 
Rome transmitted to the new rulers of the world, the Teutonic 
race. This renders necessary an analysis of the elements of 
civilization. 

Modern civilization is the result of the blending of three his- 
toric elements, — the Classical, the Hebrew, and the Teutonic. 

By the classical element in civihzation is meant that whole body 
of arts, sciences, literatures, laws, manners, ideas, and social arrange- 
ments, — everything, in a word, save Christianity, that Greece and 
Rome gave to mediaeval and modern Europe. Taken together, 
these things constituted a valuable gift to the new northern race 
that was henceforth to represent civilization. 

By the Hebrew element in history is meant Christianity. This 
has been the most potent factor in modern civihzation. It has so 
colored the whole life, and so moulded all the institutions of the 
European people that their history is very largely a story of the 
fortunes and influences of this religion, which, first going forth 
from Judea, was given to the younger world by the missionaries 
of Rome. 

By the Teutonic element in history is meant of course the Ger- 
manic race. The Teutons were poor in those things in which the 
Romans were rich. They had neither arts, nor sciences, nor phil- 
osophies, nor literatures. But they had something better than all 
these ; they had personal worth. Three prominent traits of theirs 
we must especially notice ; namely, their capacity for civilization, 
their love of personal freedom, and their reverence for woman- 
hood. 

The Teutons fortunately belonged to a progressive family of 
peoples. As Kingsley puts it, they came of a royal race. They 
were Aryans. It was their boundless capacity for growth, for 
culture, for civilization, which saved the countries of the West 
from the sterility and barbarism reserved for those of the East 
that were destined to be taken possession of by the Turanian 
Turks. 



CELTS, SLAVONIANS, AND OTHER PEOPLES. 369 

The Teutons loved personal freedom. They never called any 
man master, but followed their chosen leader as companions and 
equals. They could not even bear to have the houses of their 
villages set close together. And again we see the same indepen- 
dent spirit expressed in their assemblies of freemen, in which 
meetings, all matters of public interest were debated and decided. 
In this trait of the Teutonic disposition lay the germ of represen- 
tative government and of Protestant, or Teutonic Christianity. 

A feeling of respect for woman characterized all the northern, 
or Teutonic peoples. Tacitus says of the Germans that they 
deemed something sacred to reside in woman's nature. This 
sentiment guarded the purity and sanctity of the home. In their 
high estimation of the sacredness of the family relation, the bar- 
barians stood in marked contrast with the later Romans. Our 
own sacred word ho7ne, as well as all that it represents, comes 
from our Teutonic ancestors. 

Celts, Slavonians, and Other Peoples. — Having noticed the 
Romans and Teutons, the two most prominent peoples that pre- 
sent themselves to us at the time of the downfall of Rome, if we 
now name the Celts, the Slavonians, the Persians, the Arabians, 
and the Turanian tribes of Asia, we shall have under view the 
chief actors in the drama of mediaeval and modern history. 

At the commencement of the mediaeval era the Celts were in 
front of the Teutons, clinging to the western edge of the European 
continent, and engaged in a bitter contest with these latter peo- 
ples, which, in the antagonism of England and Ireland, was des- 
tined to extend itself to our own day. 

The Slavonians were in the rear of the Teutonic tribes, press- 
ing them on even as the Celts in front were strugghng to resist 
their advance. These peoples, progressing but little beyond the 
pastoral state before the Modern Age, will play only an obscure 
part in the events of the mediaeval era, but in the course of the 
modern period will assume a most commanding position among 
the European nations. 

The Persians were in their old seat beyond the Euphrates, 



370 INTR OD UC TION. 

maintaining there what is called the New Persian Empire, the 
kings of which, until the rise of the Saracens in the seventh 
century, were the most formidable rivals of the emperors of 
Constantinople. 

The Arabians were hidden in their deserts ; but in the seventh 
century we shall see them, animated by a wonderful religious 
fanaticism, issue from their peninsula and begin a contest with 
the Christian nations of the East and the West which, in its vary- 
ing phases, was destined to fill a large part of the mediaeval 
period. 

The Tartar tribes were buried in Central Asia. They will 
appear late in the eleventh century, proselytes for the most part 
of Mohammedanism ; and, as the religious ardor of the Semitic 
Arabians grows cool, we shall see the Crescent upheld by these 
zealous converts of another race, and finally, in the fifteenth 
century, placed by the Turks upon the dome of St. Sophia in 
Constantinople. 

As the Middle Ages draw to a close, the remote nations of East- 
ern Asia will gradually come within our circle of vision ; and, as 
the Modern Age dawns, we shall catch a glimpse of new continents 
and strange races of men beyond the Atlantic. 




EUROPE 



m THE REIGN OF 

THEODORIC 

C A. D. 500. 



[ I Roman Empire 

I I Teutonic Settlements^ 

I I Celts 



25 30 ^5 40 45 50 55 60 




SECTION I. — MEDIyEVAL HISTORY. 



FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

(FROM THE FALL OF ROME, A.D. 476, TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.) 



CHAPTER XXXIL 

THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. 

Introductory, — In connection with the history of the break-up 
of the Roman empire in the West, we have already given some 
account of the migrations and settlements of the German tribes. 
In the present chapter we shall relate briefly the political fortunes, 
for the two centuries following the fall of Rome, of the principal 
kingdoms set up by the German chieftains in the different prov- 
inces of the old empire. 

Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (a.d. 493-554). — Odoacer will be 
recalled as the barbarian chief who dethroned the last of the 
Western Roman emperors (see p. 348). His feeble government 
in Italy lasted only seventeen years, when it was brought to a 
close by the invasion of the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) under 
Theodoric, the greatest of their chiefs, who set up in Italy a new 
dominion, known as the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths. 

The reign of Theodoric covered thirty-three years — years of 
such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known since the happy 
era of the Antonines. The king made good his promise that his 
reign should be such that " the only regret of the people should 
be that the Goths had not come at an earlier period." 

The kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric 



372 THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. 

lasted only twenty-seven years after his death, which occurred a.d. 
527. Justinian, emperor of the East, taking advantage of that 
event, sent his generals, first Belisarius and afterwards Narses, to 
deliver Italy from the rule of the barbarians. The last of the 
Ostrogothic kings fell in battle, and Italy, with her fields ravaged 
and her cities in ruins, was reunited to the empire (a.d. 554). 

Kingdom of the Visigoths (a.d. 415-71 i). — The Visigoths 
(Western Goths) were already in possession of Spain and Southern 
Gaul at the time of the fall of Rome. Being driven south of the 
Pyrenees by Clovis, king of the Franks, they held possession of 
Spain until the beginning of the eighth century, when the Saracens 
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, destroyed the kingdom of Rod- 
erick, the last of the Gothic kings, and established throughout 
the country the authority of the Koran (a.d. 711). The Visi- 
gothic empire when thus overturned had lasted nearly three 
hundred years. During this time the conquerors had mingled 
with the old Romanized inhabitants of Spain, so that in the veins 
of the Spaniard of to-day is blended the blood of Iberian, Celt, 
Roman, and Teuton, together with that of the last comers, the Moors. 

Kingdom of the Burgundians (a.d. 443-534). — The Burgun- 
dians, who were near kinsmen of the Goths, built up a kingdom 
in Southeastern Gaul. A portion of this ancient domain still 
retains, from these German settlers, the name of "Burgundy." 
The Burgundians soon came in collision with the Franks on the 
north, and were reduced by the Frankish kings to a state of 
dependence. 

Kingdom of the Vandals (a.d. 429-533). — We have already 
spoken of the estabhshment in North Africa of the kingdom of 
the Vandals, and told how, under the lead of their king Genseric, 
they bore in triumph down the Tiber the heavy spoils of Rome, 
(seep. 346). 

Being Arian Christians, the Vandals persecuted with furious 
zeal the orthodox party, the followers of Athanasius. Moved by 
the entreaties of the African Catholics, the Emperor Justinian sent 
his general Belisarius to drive the barbarians from Africa, and to 



THE FRANKS. 



373 



restore that province to the bosom of the true Cathohc Church. 
The expedition was successful, and Carthage and the fruitful fields 
of Africa were restored to the em- 
pire, after having suffered the inso- 
lence of the barbarian conquerors 
for the space of one hundred years. 
The Vandals remaining in the 
country were gradually absorbed 
by the old Roman population, and 
after a few generations no certain 
trace of the barbarian invaders 
could be detected in the physi- 
cal appearance, the language, or 
the customs of the inhabitants of 
the African coast. The Vandal 
nation had disappeared ; the name 
alone remained. 

The Franks under the Mero- 
vingians (a.d. 486-752). — The 
Franks, who were destined to give 
a new name to Gaul and form the 
nucleus of the French nation, 
made their first settlement west 
of the Rhine about two hundred 
years before the fall of Rome. 
The name was the common desig- 
nation of a number of Teutonic 
tribes that had formed a confeder- 
ation while dwelling beyond the 
Rhine. The Salian Franks were 
the leading tribe of the league, 
and it was from the members of 
their most powerful family, who 




CLOVIS AND THE VASE OF SOiSSONS.i 

(After a drawing by Alphonse de Neuville.) 



1 The story of the Vase of Soissons illustrates at once the customs of the 
Franks and the power and personal character of their leader Clovis. Upon 



374 THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. 

traced their descent from Merovaeus, a legendary sea-king of the 
Franks, that leaders were chosen by the free vote of all the war- 
riors. 

After the downfall of Rome, Clovis, then chief of the Franks, 
conceived the ambition of erecting a kingdom upon the ruins of 
the Roman power. He attacked Syagrius, the Roman governor 
of Gaul, and at Soissons gained a decisive victory over his forces 
(a.d. 486). Thus was destroyed forever in Gaul that Roman 
authority established among its barbarous tribes more than five 
centuries before by the conquests of Julius Caesar. 

During his reign, Clovis extended his authority over the greater 
part of Gaul, reducing to the condition of tributaries the various 
Teutonic tribes that had taken possession of different portions of 
the country. About a century and a half of discord followed his 
energetic rule, by the end of which time the princes of the house 
of Merovseus had become so feeble and inefficient that they were 
contemptuously called " do-nothings," and an ambitious officer of 
the crown, who bore the title of Mayor of the Palace, pushed aside 
his imbecile master, and gave to the Frankish monarchy a new 
royal line, — the Carolingian (see p. 404). 

Kingdom of the Lombards (a.d. 568-774). — The circum- 
stances attending the establishment of the Lombards in Italy 
were very like those marking the settlement of the Ostrogoths. 
The Lombards (Langobardi), so called either from their long 
beards, or their long battle-axes, came from the region of the 
Upper Danube. In just such a march as the Ostrogoths had 
made nearly a century before, the Lombard nation crossed the 
Alps and descended upon the plains of Italy. After many years 

the division at Soissons of some spoils, Clovis asked his followers to set aside 
a rule whereby they divided the booty by lot, and to let him have a certain 
beautiful vase. One of his followers objected, and broke the vase to pieces 
with his battle-axe. Clovis concealed his anger at the time, but some time 
afterwards, when reviewing his troops, he approached the man who had of- 
fended him, and chiding him for not keeping his arms bright, cleft his head 
with a battle-axe, at the same time exclaiming, "Thus didst thou to the vase 
of Soissons." 



THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN BRITAIN. 375 

of desperate fighting, they wrested from the empire ^ all the penin- 
sula save some of the great cities, and set up in the country a 
monarchy which lasted almost exactly two centuries. 

The rule of the Lombard princes was brought to an end by 
Charlemagne, the greatest of the Frankish rulers (see p. 405); 
but the blood of the invaders had by this time become inter- 
mingled with that of the former subjects of the Roman empire, 
so that throughout all that part of the peninsula which is still 
called Lombardy after them, the people at the present day reveal, 
in the light hair and fair features which distinguish them from the 
inhabitants of Southern Italy, their partly German origin. 

The Anglo-Saxons in Britain. — We have already seen how in 
the time of Rome's distress the Angles and Saxons secured a foot- 
hold in Britain (see p. 344). The advance of the invaders here 
was stubbornly resisted by the half-Romanized Celts of the island. 
At the end of a century and a half of fighting, the German tribes 
had gained possession of only the eastern half of what is now Eng- 
land. On the conquered soil they set up eight or nine, or perhaps 
more, petty kingdoms. For the space of two hundred years there 
was an almost perpetual strife among these states for supremacy. 
Finally Egbert, king of the West Saxons, brought all the other 
states into a subject or tributary condition, and became the first 
king of the English, and the founder of the long line of Saxon 
monarchs (a.d. 827). 

Teutonic Tribes outside the Empire. — We have now spoken 
of the most important of the Teutonic tribes that forced them- 
selves within the limits of the Roman empire in the West, and 
that there, upon the ruins of the civilization they had overthrown, 
laid or helped to lay the foundations of the modern nations of 
Italy, Spain, France, and England. Beyond the boundaries of the 
old empire were still other tribes and clans of this same mighty 

1 Italy, it will be borne in mind, had but recently been delivered from the 
hands of the Ostrogoths by the lieutenants of the Eastern emperor (see p. 
372). 



376 THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. 

family of nations, — tribes and clans that were destined to play 
great parts in European history. 

On the east, beyond the Rhine, were the ancestors of the 
modern Germans. Notwithstanding the immense hosts that the 
forests and morasses of Germany had poured into the Roman 
provinces, the Father-land, in the sixth century of our era, seemed 
still as crowded as before the great migration began. These tribes 
were yet savages in manners and for the most part pagans in 
religion. 

In the northwest of Europe were the Scandinavians, the ances- 
tors of the modern Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. They were 
as yet untouched either by the civilization or the rehgion of Rome. 
We shall scarcely get a glimpse of them before the ninth century, 
when they will appear as the Northmen, the dreaded corsairs of 
the northern seas. 



INTR OD UCTOR V. 377 



CHAPTER XXXriI. 

THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

Introductory. — The most important event in the history of the 
tribes that took possession of the Roman empire in the West 
was their conversion to Christianity. Many of the barbarians 
were converted before or soon after their entrance into the em- 
pire ; to this circumstance the Roman provinces owed their im- 
munity from the excessive cruelties which pagan barbarians seldom 
fail to inflict upon a subjected enemy. Alaric left untouched the 
treasures of the churches of the Roman Christians, because his 
own faith was also Christian (see p. 342). For like reason the 
Vandal king Genseric yielded to the prayers of Pope Leo the 
Great, and promised to leave to the inhabitants of the Imperial 
City their lives (see p. 346). The more tolerable fate of Italy, 
Spain, and Gaul, as compared with the hard fate of Britain, is 
owing, in part at least, to the fact that the tribes which overran 
those countries had become, in the main, converts to Christianity 
before they crossed the boundaries of the empire, while the Saxons, 
when they entered Britain, were still untamed pagans. 

Conversion of the Goths, Vandals, and Other Tribes. — The 
first converts to Christianity among the barbarians beyond the 
limits of the empire were won from among the Goths. Foremost 
of the apostles that arose among them was Ulfilas, who translated 
the Scriptures into the Gothic language, omitting from his version, 
however, "the Book of Kings," as he feared that the stirring 
recital of wars and battles in that portion of the Word might 
kindle into too fierce a flame the martial ardor of his new con- 
verts. 

When the Visigoths, distressed by the Huns, besought the East- 
ern Emperor Valens for permission to cross the Danube, one of 



378 CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

the conditions imposed upon them was that they should all be 
baptized in the Christian faith (see p. 336). This seems to have 
crowned the work that had been going on among them for some 
time, and thereafter they were called Christians. 

What happened to the Goths happened also to most of the 
barbarian tribes that participated in the overthrow of the Roman 
empire in the West. By the time of the fall of Rome, the Goths, 
the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, had all become proselytes 
to Christianity. The greater part of them, however, professed 
the Arian creed, which had been condemned by the great 
council of the church held at Nicsea during the reign of Con- 
stantine the Great (see p. 332). Hence they were regarded as 
heretics by the Roman Church, and all had to be reconverted to 
the orthodox creed, which was gradually effected. 

The remaining Teutonic tribes of whose conversion we shall 
speak, — the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, and the 
chief tribes of Germany, — embraced at the outset the Cathohc 
faith. 

Conversion of the Franks. — The Franks, when they entered 
the empire, like the Angles and Saxons when they landed in 
Britain, were still pagans. Christianity gained way very slowly 
among them until a supposed interposition by the Christian God 
in their behalf led the king and nation to adopt the new religion 
in place of their old faith. The circumstances were these. In 
the year 496 of our era, the Alemanni crossed the Rhine and fell 
upon the Franks. A desperate battle ensued. In the midst of it, 
Clovis, falling upon his knees, called upon the God of the Chris- 
tians, and solemnly vowed that if He would give victory to his 
arms, he would become his faithful follower. The battle turned in 
favor of the Franks, and Clovis, faithful to his vow, was baptized, 
and with him several thousand of his warriors. This incident illus- 
trates how the very superstitions of the barbarians, their belief in 
omens and divine interpositions, contributed to their conversion. 

Augustine's Mission to the Angles and Saxons in Britain. — 
In the year 596 Pope Gregory I. sent the monk Augustine with 



THE CELTIC CHURCH. 379 

a band of forty companions to teach the Christian faith in Britain. 
Gregory had become interested in the inhabitants of that remote 
region in the following way. One day, some years before his ele- 
vation to the papal chair, he was passing through the slave- market 
at Rome, and noticed there some English captives, whose fair 
features awakened his curiosity respecting them. Inquiring of 
what nation they were, he was told that they were called Angles. 
'' Right," said he, "for they have an angelic face, and it becomes 
such to become co-heirs with the angels in heaven." A little while 
afterwards he was elected Pope, and still mindful of the incident 
of the slave-market, he sent to the Angles the embassy to which 
we have alluded. 

The monks were favorably received by the English, who listened 
attentively to the story the strangers had come to tell them, and 
being persuaded that the tidings were true, they burned the tem- 
ples of Woden and Thor, and were in large numbers baptized in 
the Christian faith. 

The Celtic Church. — It here becomes necessary for us to say a 
word respecting the Celtic Church. Christianity, it must be borne 
in mind, held its place among the Celts whom the Saxons crowded 
slowly westward. Now, during the very period that England was 
being wrested from the Celtic warriors, the Celtic missionaries 
were effecting the spiritual conquest of Ireland. Among these 
messengers of the Cross, was a zealous priest named Patricius, 
better known as Saint Patrick, the patron saint of the Irish. 

Never did any race receive the Gospel with more ardent enthu- 
siasm. The Irish Church sent out its devoted missionaries into 
the Pictish Highlands, into the forests of Germany, and among 
the wilds of Alps and Apennines. '" For a time it seemed," says 
the historian Green, " that the course of the world's history was to 
be changed ; as if the older Celtic race that Roman and German 
had driven before them had turned to the moral conquest of their 
conquerors ; as if Celtic, and not Latin, Christianity was to mould 
the destinies of the churches of the West." 

Among the numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic 



380 CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

missionaries was the famous monastery established about a.d. 564 
by the Irish monk Saint Columba, on the Httle isle of lona, just 
off the Pictish coast. lona became a most renowned centre of 
Christian learning and missionary zeal, and for almost two centu- 
ries was the point from which radiated light through the darkness 
of the surrounding heathenism. Fitly has it been called the 
Nursery of Saints and the Oracle of the West. 

Rivalry between the Roman and the Celtic Church. — Now, 
from the very moment that Augustine touched the shores of Brit- 
ain and summoned the Welsh clergy to acknowledge the discipline 
of the Roman Church, there had been a growing jealousy between 
the Latin and the Celtic Church, which by this time had risen 
into the bitterest rivalry and strife. So long had the Celtic Church 
been cut off from all relations with Rome, that it had come to 
differ somewhat from it in the matter of certain ceremonies and 
observances, such as the time of keeping Easter and the form of 
the tonsure. Furthermore, it was inclined to look upon St. John 
rather than upon St. Peter as the apostle of pre-eminence. 

The Council of Whitby (a.d. 664). — With a view to settling 
the quarrel Oswy, king of Northumbria, called a synod composed 
of representatives of both parties, at the monastery of Whitby. 
The chief question of debate, which was argued before the king 
by the ablest advocates of both Churches, was the proper time for 
the observance of Easter. Finally Wilfred, the speaker for the 
Roman party, happening to quote the words of Christ to Peter, 
"To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven," the 
king asked the Celtic monks if these words were really spoken by 
Christ to that apostle, and upon their admitting that they were, 
Oswy said, " He being the door-keeper, ... I will in all things 
obey his decrees, lest when I come to the gates of the kingdom 
of heaven, there should be none to open them."^ 

The decision of the prudent Oswy gave the British Isles to 
Rome ; for not only was all England quickly won to the Roman 
side, but the Celtic churches and monasteries of Wales and Ire- 

1 Bede's ^^^/. i¥z>/. TTI. 25. 



THE ROMAN VICTORY. 381 

land and Scotland soon came to conform to the Roman standard 
and custom. "By the assistance of our Lord," says the pious 
Latin chronicler, " the monks were brought to the canonical 
observation of Easter, and the right mode of the tonsure." 

The Roman Victory Fortunate for England. — There is no 
doubt but that it was very fortunate for England that the contro- 
versy turned as it did. For one of the most important of the 
consequences of the conversion of Britain was the re-establishment 
of that connection of the island with Roman civilization which 
had been severed by the calamities of the fifth century. As Green 
says, — he is speaking of the embassy of St. Augustine, — "The 
march of the monks as they chanted their solemn litany was in 
one sense a return of the Roman legions who withdrew at the 
trumpet call of Alaric. . . . Practically Augustine's landing 
renewed that union with the western world which the landing of 
Hengest had destroyed. The new England was admitted into 
the older Commonwealth of nations. The civilization, art, letters, 
which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors 
returned with the Christian faith." 

Now all this advantage would have been lost had Zona instead 
of Rome won at Whitby. England would have been isolated from 
the world, and would have had no part or lot in that rich common 
life which was destined to the European peoples as co-heirs of 
the heritage bequeathed to them by the dying empire. 

A second valuable result of the Roman victory was the hasten- 
ing of the political unity of England through its ecclesiastical 
unity. The Celtic Church, in marked contrast with the Latin, 
was utterly devoid of capacity for organization. It could have 
done nothing in the way of developing among the several Anglo- 
Saxon states the sentiment of nationality. On the other hand, 
the Roman Church, through the exercise of a central authority, 
through national synods and general legislation, overcame the 
isolation of the different kingdoms, and helped powerfully to draw 
them together into a common political hfe. 

The Conversion of Germany. — The conversion of the tribes of 



382 CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

Germany was effected by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish mis- 
sionaries, — and the sword of Charlemagne (seep. 406). The 
great apostle of Germany was the Saxon Winfred, or Winifred, bet- 
ter known as St. Boniface. During a long and intensely active Hfe 
he founded schools and monasteries, organized churches, preached 
and baptized ; and at last died a martyr's death (a.d. 753). 

The christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teu- 
tonic states of Western Europe from the constant peril of massacre 
by their heathen kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in Central 
Europe against the advance of the waves of Turanian paganism 
and Mohammedanism which for centuries beat so threateningly 
against the eastern frontiers of Germany.' 

Christianity in the North. — The progress of Christianity in 
the North was slow : but gradually, during the ninth, tenth, and 
eleventh centuries, the missionaries of the Church won over all 
the Scandinavian peoples. One important effect of their conver- 
sion was the checking of their piratical expeditions, which pre- 
viously had vexed almost every shore to the south. 

By the opening of the fourteenth century all Europe was claimed 
by Christianity, save a limited district in Southern Spain held by 
the Moors, and another in the Baltic regions possessed by the still 
pagan Finns and Lapps. 

Monasticism. — It was during this very conflict with the bar- 
barians that the Church developed the remarkable institution 
known as Monasticism, which denotes a hfe of seclusion from the 
world, with the object of promoting the interests of the soul. The 
central idea of the system is, that the body is a weight upon the 
spirit, and that to "mortify the flesh " is a prime duty. 

The monastic system embraced two prominent classes of ascetics : 

1 The conversion of Russia dates from about the close of the tenth century. 
Its evangelization was effected by the missionaries of Constantinople, that is, 
of the Greek, or Eastern Church. Of the Turanian tribes, only the Hunga- 
rians, or Magyars, embraced Christianity. All the other Turanian peoples 
that appeared on the eastern edge of Europe during the Middle Ages, came 
as pagan or Moslem enemies. 



MONASTICISM. 

I. Hermits, or anchorites, persons who, retiring from the world, 
Hved soHtary Hves in desolate places; 2. Cenobites, or monks, 
who formed commmnities and lived under a common roof. 

St. Antony, an Egyptian ascetic, who by his example and influ- 
ence gave a tremendous impulse to the strange enthusiasm, is 
called the " father of the hermits." The persecutions that arose 
under the Roman emperors, driving thousands into the deserts, 
contributed vastly to the movement. The cities of Egypt became 
almost emptied of their Christian population. 

About the close of the fourth century the cenobite system was 
introduced into Europe, and in an astonishingly short space of 
time spread throughout all the western countries where Christianity 
had gained a foothold. Monasteries arose on every side, in the 
wilds of the desert and in the midst of the crowded city. The 
number that fled to these retreats was vastly augmented by the 
disorder and terror attending the invasion of the barbarians and 
the overthrow of the empire in the West. 

With the view of introducing some sort of system and uniformity 
among the numerous communities, fraternities or associations were 
early organized and spread rapidly. The three essential vows re- 
quired of their members were poverty, chastity, and obedience. 
The most celebrated of these fraternities was the Order of the 
Benedictines, so called from its founder St. Benedict (a.d. 480- 
543). This order became immensely popular. At one time it 
embraced about 40,000 abbeys. 

Advantages of the Monastic System. — The early establishment 
of the monastic system in the Church resulted in great advantages 
to the new world that was shaping itself out of the ruins of the old. 

The monks became missionaries, and it was largely to their zeal 
and devotion that the Church owed her speedy and signal victory 
over the barbarians ; they also became teachers, and under the 
shelter of the monasteries established schools which were the nur- 
series of learning during the Middle Ages ; they became copyists, 
and with great care and industry gathered and multiplied ancient 
manuscripts, and thus preserved and transmitted to the modern 



CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

world much classical learning and literature that would otherwise 
have been lost ; they became agriculturists, especially the Bene- 
dictines, and by skilful labor converted the wilderness about their 
retreats into fair gardens, thus redeeming from barrenness some of 
the most desolate districts of Europe ; they became further the 
almoners of the pious and the wealthy, and distributed alms to 
the poor and needy. Everywhere the monasteries opened their 
hospitable doors to the weary, the sick, and the discouraged. In 
a word, these retreats were the inns, the asylums, and the hospitals, 
as well as the schools of learning and the nurseries of religion, of 
mediaeval Europe. Nor should we fail to mention how the asceti- 
cism of the monks checked those flagrant social evils that had 
sapped the strength of the Roman race, and which uncounteracted 
would have contaminated aftd weakened the purer peoples of the 
North ; nor how, through its requirements of self-control and 
self-sacrifice, it gave prominence to the inner life of the spirit. 

Conclusion. — With a single word or two respecting the gen- 
eral consequences of the conversion to Christianity of the Teu- 
tonic tribes, we will close the present chapter. 

The adoption of a common faith by the European peoples drew 
them together into a sort of rehgious brotherhood, and rendered 
it possible for the continent to employ its undivided strength, dur- 
ing the succeeding centuries, in staying the threatening progress 
toward the West of the colossal Mohammedan power of the East. 
The Christian Church set in the midst of the seething, martial 
nations and races of Europe an influence that fostered the gentler 
virtues, and a power that was always to be found on the side of 
order, and usually of mercy. It taught the brotherhood of man, 
the essential equality in the sight of God of the high and the low, 
and thus pleaded powerfully and at last effectually for the freedom 
of the slave and the serf. It prepared the way for the introduc- 
tion among the barbarians of the arts, the literature, and the cult- 
ure of Rome, and contributed powerfully to hasten the fusion 
into a single people of the Latins and Teutons, of which import- 
ant matter we shall treat in the following chapter. 



^ 



ROMANCE NATIONS. 385 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

fusio5j of the latin and teutonic peoples. 

Introductory. — Having seen how the Hebrew element, that 
is, the ideas, beHefs, and sentiments of Christianity, became the 
common possession of the Latins and Teutons, it yet remains to 
notice how these two races, upon the soil of the old empire, 
intermingled their blood, their language, their laws, their usages 
and customs, to form new peoples, new tongues, and new institu- 
tions. 

The Romance Nations. — In some districts the barbarian 
invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long 
time by the bitter antagonism of race, and a sense of injury on 
the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the other. 
But for the most part the Teutonic intruders and the Latin-speak- 
ing inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and Gaul very soon began freely 
to mingle their blood by family aUiances. It is quite impossible 
to say what proportion the Teutons bore to the Romans. Of 
course the proportion varied in the different countries. In none 
of the countries named, however, was it large enough to absorb 
the Latinized population ; on the contrary, the barbarians were 
themselves absorbed, yet not without changing very essentially the 
body into which they were incorporated. By the close of the 
ninth century the two elements had become quite intimately 
blended, and a century or two later Roman and Teuton have 
ahke disappeared, and we are introduced to Itahans, Spaniards, 
and Frenchmen. These we call Romance nations, because at 
base they are Roman.^ 

1 Britain did not become a Romance nation on account of the nature of 
the barbarian conquest of" that island. The Romanized provincials, as ha? 
been seen, were there almost destroyed by the fierce Teutonic invaders. 



386 THE LATIN AND TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

The Formation of the Romance Languages. — During the five 
centuries of their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain and 
Gaul forgot their barbarous dialects and came to speak a corrupt 
I^tin. Now in exactly the same way that the dialects of the 
Celtic tribes of Gaul and of the Celtiberians of Spain had given 
way to the more refined speech of the Romans, did 'the rude lan- 
guages of the Teutons yield to the more cultured speech of the 
Roman provincials. In the course of two or three centuries after 
their entrance into the empire, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, 
and Franks had, in a large measure, dropped their own tongue, 
and were speaking that of the people they had subjected. But of 
course this provincial Latin underwent a great change upon the 
lips of the mixed descendants of the Romans and Teutons. Owing 
to the absence of a common popular literature, the changes that 
took place in one country did not exactly correspond to those 
going on in another. Hence, in the course of time, we find dif- 
ferent dialects springing up, and by about the ninth century the 
Latin has virtually disappeared as a spoken language, and its place 
been usurped by what will be known as the Itahan, Spanish, and 
French languages, all more or less resembling the ancient Latin, 
and all called Romance tongues, because children of the old 
Roman speech. 

Personal Character of the Teutonic Legislation. — The legisla- 
tion of the barbarians was generally personal instead of territorial, 
as with us ; that is, instead of all the inhabitants of a given country 
being subject to the same laws, there were different ones for the 
different classes of society. The Latins, for instance, were sub- 
ject in private law only to the old Roman code, while the Teutons 
lived under the rules and regulations which they had brought with 
them from beyond the Rhine. 

Even among themselves the Teutons knew nothing of the mod- 
ern legal maxim that all should stand equal before the law. The 
penalty inflicted upon the evil-doer depended, not upon the nature 
of his crime, but upon his rank, or that of the party injured. Thus 
slaves and serfs could be beaten and put to death for minor 



ORDEALS. 387 

offences, while a freeman might atone for any crime, even for 
murder, by the payment of a fine, the amount of the penalty being 
determined by the rank of the victim. Among the Saxons the 
life of a king's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a 
common free man was valued only one-sixth as high. 

Ordeals. — The modes by which guilt or innocence was ascer- 
tained show in how rude a state was the administration of justice 
among the barbarians. One very common method of proof was 
by what were called ordeals, in which the question was submitted 
to the judgment of God. Of these the chief were the ordeal by 
fire, the ordeal by water, and the ordeal by battle. 

The ordeal by fi?r consisted in taking in the hand a red-hot iron, 
or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row of hot plough- 
shares laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the person escaped 
without serious harm, he was held to be innocent. Another way of 
performing the fire ordeal was by running through the flame of 
two fires built close together, or by walking over live brands ; 
hence the phrase " to haul over the coals." 

The ordeal by water was of two kinds, by hot water and cold. 
In the hot-water ordeal the accused person thrust his arm into 
boiling water, and if no hurt was visible upon the arm three days 
after the operation, the person was considered guiltless. When we 
speak of one's being " in hot water," we use an expression which 
had its origin in this ordeal. 

In the cold-water trial the suspected person was thrown into a 
stream or pond : if he floated, he was held guilty ; if he sank, 
innocent. The water, it was believed, would reject the guilty, 
but receive the innocent into its bosom. The practice common 
in Europe until a very recent date of trying supposed witches by 
weighing them, or by throwing them into a pond of water to see 
whether they would sink or float, grew out of this superstition. 

The t7Hal by combat, or wager of battle, was a solemn judicial 
duel. It was resorted to in the belief that God would give victory 
to the right. Naturally it was a favorite mode of trial among a 
people who found their chief dehght in fighting. Even religious 



388 THE LATIN AND TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

disputes were sometimes settled in this way. The modern duel 
may probably be regarded as a relic of this form of trial. 

The ordeal was frequently performed by deputy, that is, one 
person for hire or for the sake of friendship would undertake it 
for another ; hence the expression " to go through fire and water 
to serve one." Especially was such substitution common in the 
judicial duel, as women and ecclesiastics were generally forbidden 
to appear personally in the lists. The champions, as the deputies 
were called, became in time a regular class in society, like the 
gladiators in ancient Rome. Religious houses and chartered 
towns hired champions at a regular salary to defend all the cases 
to which they might become a party. 

The Revival of the Eoman Law. — Now the barbarian law- 
system, if such it can be called, the character of which we have 
simply suggested by the preceding illustrations, gradually displaced 
the Roman law in all those countries where the two systems at 
first existed alongside each other, save in Italy and Southern 
France, where the provincials greatly outnumbered the invaders. 
But the admirable jurisprudence of Rome was bound to assert its 
superiority. About the close of the eleventh century, there was a 
great revival in the study of the Roman law as embodied in the 
Coi'pus Juris Civilis of Justinian (see p. 358), and in the course 
of a century or two this became either the groundwork or a strong 
modifying element in the jurisprudence of almost all the peoples 
of Europe. 

What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate of 
the Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the barba- 
rian tongues, after maintaining a place in those countries for two 
or three centuries, at length gave place to the superior Latin, 
which became the basis of the new Romance languages, so now 
in the domain of law the barbarian maxims and customs, though 
holding their place more persistently, likewise finally give way, 
almost everywhere and in a greater or less degree, to the more 
excellent law-system of the empire. Rome must fulfil her destiny 
and give laws to the nations. 



THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN. 389 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. 

The Reign of Justinian (a.d. 5 2 7-565 ) . — During the fifty years 
immediately following the fall of Rome, the Eastern emperors 
struggled hard and doubtfully to withstand the waves of the bar- 
barian inundation which constantly threatened to overwhelm Con- 
stantinople with the same awful calamities that had befallen the 
imperial city of the West. Had the new Rome — the destined 
refuge for a thousand years of Gr«co-Roman learning and culture 
— also gone down at this time before the storm, the loss to the 
cause of civilization would have been incalculable. 

Fortunately, in the year 527, there ascended the Eastern throne 
a prince of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of 
such rare genius that his name has been allotted a place in the 
short list of the great commanders of the world. Justinian was 
the name of the prince, and Belisarius that of the soldier. The 
sovereign has given name to the period, which is called after him 
the '• Era of Justinian." 

It will be recalled that it was during this reign that Africa was 
recovered from the Vandals and Italy from the Goths (see p. 372). 
These conquests brought once more within the boundaries of the 
empire soms of the fairest lands of the West. 

But that which has given Justinian's reign a greater distinction 
than any conferred upon it by brilliant military achievements, is 
the collection and publication, under the imperial direction, of the 
Corpus Juris Civilis, or " Body of the Roman Law." This work 
is the most precious legacy of Rome to the modern world. In 
causing its publication, Justinian earned the title of " The Law- 
giver of Civilization " (see p. 358). 

In the midst of this brilliant reign an awful pestilence, bred 



390 THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. 

probably in Egypt, fell upon the empire, and did not cease its 
ravages until about fifty years afterwards. This plague was the 
most terrible scourge of which history has any knowledge, save 
perhaps the so-called Black Death, which afflicted Europe in the 
fourteenth century. The number of victims of the plague has 
been estimated at 100,000,000. 

The Reign of Heraclius (a.d. 610-641). — For half a century 
after the death of Justinian, the annals of the Byzantine empire 
are unimportant. Then we reach the reign of Heraclius, a prince 
about whose worthy name gather matters of significance in world- 
history. 

About this time Chosroes II., king of Persia, wrested from the 
empire the fortified cities that guarded the Euphratean frontier, 
and overran all Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. What was known 
as the True Cross was torn from the church at Jerusalem and car- 
ried off in triumph to Persia. In order to compel Chosroes to 
recall his armies, which were distressing the provinces of the 
empire, Heraclius, pursuing the same plan as that by which the 
Romans in the Second Punic War forced the Carthaginians to call 
Hannibal out of Italy (see p. 264), with a small company of 
picked men marched boldly into the heart of Persia, and in 
revenge for the insults heaped by the infidels upon the Chris- 
tian churches, overturned the altars of the fire-worshippers and 
quenched their sacred flames. 

The struggle between the two rival empires was at last decided 
by a terrible combat known as the Battle of Nineveh (a.d. 627), 
which was fought around the ruins of the old Assyrian capital. 
The Persian army was almost annihilated. In a few days grief or 
violence ended the life of Chosroes. With him passed away the 
glory of the Second Persian Empire. The new Persian king 
negotiated a treaty of peace with Heraclius. The articles of this 
treaty left the boundaries of the two empires unchanged. 

The Empire becomes Greek. — The two combatants in the 
fierce struggle which we have been watching, were too much ab- 
sorbed in their contentions to notice the approach of a storm 



j^^Sta 



THE EMPIRE BECOMES GREEK. 391 

from the deserts of Arabia, — a storm destined to overwhelm both 
alike in its destructive course. Within a few years from the 
date of the Battle of Nineveh, the Saracens entered upon their 
surprising career of conquest, which in a short time completely 
changed the face of the entire East, and set the Crescent, the em- 
blem of a new faith, alike above the fire-altars of Persia and the 
churches of the Empire. Heraclius himself lived to see — so 
cruel are the vicissitudes of fortune — the very provinces which 
he had wrested from the hands of the fire-worshippers, in the 
hands of the more insolent followers of the False Prophet, and 
the Crescent planted within sight of the walls of Constantinople. 

The conquests of the Saracens cut off from the empire those 
provinces that had the smallest Greek element and thus rendered 
the population subject to the emperor more homogeneous, more 
thoroughly Greek. The Roman element disappeared, and the 
court of Constantinople became Greek in tone, spirit, and manners. 
Hence, instead of longer applying to the empire the designation 
Roman, we shall from this on call it the Greek, or Byzantine 
empire. 

We shall trace no further as a separate story the fortunes of the 
Eastern emperors. In the eighth century the so-called Icono- 
clastic controversy ^ will draw our attention to them ; and then 
again in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Crusades will once 
more bring their affairs into prominence, and we shall see a line of 
Latin princes seated for a time (from 1204 to 1261) upon the 
throne of Constantine.^ Finally, in the year 1453, we shall wit- 
ness the capture of Constantinople by the Turks,^ which disaster 
closes the long and checkered history of the Graeco-Roman em- 
pire in the East. 



1 See p. 417. 2 See p_ ^^5^ "■ See p. 462. 



Jfr 



392 



MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 



Introductory Statement. — The Arabs, or Saracens, who are 

now about to play their surpris- 
ing part in history, are, after the 
Hebrews, the most important peo- 
ple of the Semitic race. Secure 
^^ in their inaccessible deserts, the 
Arabs have never as a people 
bowed their necks to a foreign 
conqueror, although portions of 
the Arabian peninsula have been 
repeatedly subjugated by different 
races. 

Religious Condition of Arabia 
before Mohammed. — Before the 
reforms of Mohammed, the Arabs 
were idolaters. Their holy city 
was Mecca. Here was the ancient 
and most revered shrine of the 
Caaba, where was preserved a sa- 
cred black stone believed to have 
been given by an angel to Abra- 
ham. 

But though the native tribes of 
the peninsula were idolaters, still 
there were many followers of other 
faiths ; for Arabia at this time was 
a land of religious freedom. The altar of the fire-worshipper 
rose alongside the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church. 




AN ARAB RIDER. 



MOHAMMED. 



393 



The Jews especially were to be found everywhere in great numbers, 
having been driven from Palestine by the Roman persecutions. It 
was from the Jews and Christians, doubtless, that Mohammed 
learned many of the doctrines that he taught. 

Mohammed. — Mohammed, the great prophet of the Arabs, 
was born in the holy city of Mecca, about the year 5 70 of our era. 
He sprang from the distinguished tribe of the Koreishites, the 
custodians of the sacred shrine of the Caaba. Like Moses, he 
spent many years of his life as a shepherd. 




MOSQUE AND C\.\BA AT MECCA. .Fu.i. a phc-'o^raph.) 

Mohammed possessed a deeply religious nature, and it was his 
wont often to retire to a cave a few miles from Mecca, and there 
spend long vigils in prayer. He declared that here he had visions, 
in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and made to him 
revelations which he was commanded to make known to his 
fellow- men. The sum of the new faith which he was to teach was 
this : "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." 

Mohammed communicated the nature of his visions to his wife, 
and she became his first convert. At the end of three years his 
disciples numbered forty persons. 

The Hegira (622). — The teachings of Mohammed at last 



394 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 

aroused the anger of a powerful party among the Koreishites, who 
feared that they, as the guardians of the national idols of the 
Caaba, would be compromised in the eyes of the other tribes 
by allowing such heresy to be openly taught by one of their num- 
ber, and accordingly plots were formed against his life. Barely 
escaping assassination, he fled to the city of Medina. 

This Hegira, or Flight, as the word signifies, occurred in the 
year 622, and was considered by the Moslems as such an important 
event in the history of their religion that they adopted it as the 
beginning of a new era, and from it still continue to reckon their 
dates. 

The Faith extended by the Sword. — His cause being warmly 
espoused by the inhabitants of Medina, Mohammed threw aside 
the character of an exhorter, and assumed that of a warrior. He 
declared it to be the will of God that the new faith should be 
spread by the sword. Accordingly, the year following the Hegira, 
he began to attack and plunder caravans. The flames of a sacred 
war were soon kindled. The reckless enthusiasm of his wild con- 
verts was intensified by the assurance of the Apostle that death 
met in fighting those who resisted the true faith ensured the martyr 
immediate entrance upon the joys of Paradise. Within ten years 
from the time of the assumption of the sword by Mohammed, 
Mecca had been conquered, and the new creed established among 
all the tribes of Arabia. 

Mohammed died in the year 632. No character in all history 
has been the subject of more conflicting speculations than the 
Arabian Prophet. By some he has been called a self-deluded 
enthusiast, while others have denounced him as the boldest of 
impostors. We shah, perhaps, reconcile these discordant views, 
if we bear in mind that the same person may, in different periods 
of a long career, be both. 

The Koran and the Doctrines of Islam. — Before going on to 
trace the conquests of the successors of Mohammed, we must 
form some acquaintance with the religion of the great Prophet. 

The doctrines of Mohammedanism, or Islam, which means 



ABUBEKR. 395 

" submission," are contained in the Koran, the sacred book of the 
Moslems. They declare that God has revealed himself through 
four holy men : to Moses he gave the Pentateuch ; to David, the 
Psalms ; to Jesus, the Gospels ; and to Mohammed, the last and 
greatest of all the prophets, he gave the Koran. 

''There is no God save Allah," is the fundamental doctrine of 
Islaraism, and to this is added the equally binding declaration that 
" Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah." The faithful Moslem 
must also believe in the sacredness and infallibility of the Koran. 
He is also required to believe in the resurrection and the day of 
judgment, and an after-state of happiness and of misery. Also 
he must believe in the absoluteness of the decrees of God, — that 
he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, and that nothing man 
can do can change his appointments. 

The Koran, while requiring assent to the foregoing creed, incul- 
cates the practice of four virtues. The first is prayer ; five times 
each day must the believer turn his face towards Mecca and engage 
in devotion. The second requirement is almsgiving. The third 
is keeping the Fast of Ramadan, which lasts a whole month. The 
fourth duty is making a pilgrimage to Mecca. 

Abubekr, First Successor of Mohammed (632-634). — Upon 
the death of Mohammed a dispute at once arose as to his suc- 
cessor ; for the Prophet left no children, nor had he designated 
upon whom his mantle should fall. Abubekr, the Apostle's father- 
in-law, was at last chosen to the position, with the title of Caliph, 
or Vicar, of the Prophet, although many thought that the place 
belonged to Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, and one of 
his first and most faithful companions. This question of succes- 
sion was destined at a later period to divide the Mohammedan 
world into two sects, animated by the most bitter and lasting hos- 
tility towards each other.^ 

During the first part of his caliphate, Abubekr was engaged in 

1 The Mohammedans of Persia, who are known as Shiites, are the leaders 
of the party of Ali; while the Turks, known as Sunnites, are the chief ad- 
herents of the opposite party. 



396 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 

suppressing revolts in different parts of the peninsula. These 
commotions quieted, he was free to carry out the last injunction 
of the Prophet to his followers, which enjoined them to spread his 
doctrines by the sword, till all men had confessed the creed of 
Islam, or consented to pay tribute to the Faithful. 

The Conquest of Syria. — The country which Abubekr resolved 
first to reduce was Syria. A call addressed to all the Faithful 
throughout Arabia was responded to with the greatest alacrity and 
enthusiasm. From every quarter the warriors flocked to Medina, 
until the desert about the city was literally covered with their black 
tents, and crowded with men and horses and camels. After 
invoking the blessing of God upon the hosts, Abubekr sent them 
forward upon their holy mission. 

Heraclius made a brave effort to defend the holy places against 
the fanatical warriors of the desert, but all in vain. His armies 
were cut to pieces. Seeing there was no hope of saving Jerusalem, 
he removed from that city to Constantinople the True Cross, which 
he had rescued from the Persians (see p. 390). " Farewell, Syria," 
were his words, as he turned from the consecrated land which he 
saw must be given up to the followers of the False Prophet. 

The Conquest of Persia (632-641). — While one Saracen army 
was overrunning Syria, another was busy with the subjugation of 
Persia. Enervated as this country was through luxury, and weak- 
ened by her long wars with the Eastern emperors, she could offer 
but feeble resistance to the terrible energy of the Saracens. 

Soon after the conquest of Persia, the Arabs crossed the moun- 
tains that wall Persia on the north, and spread their faith among 
the Turanian tribes of Central Asia. Among the most formidable 
of the clans that adopted the new religion were the Turks. Their 
conversion was an event of the greatest significance, for it was 
their swords that were destined to uphold and to spread the creed 
of Mohammed when the fiery zeal of his own countrymen should 
abate, and their arms lose the dreaded power which religious fanat- 
icism had for a moment imparted to them. 

The Conquest of Egypt {dz'^). — The reduction of Persia was 



CONQUEST OF NORTHERN AFRICA. 397 

not yet fully accomplished, when the Caliph Omar, the successor 
of Abubekr, commissioned Amrou, the chief whose valor had won 
many of the cities of Palestine, to carry the standard of the 
Prophet into the Valley of the Nile. Alexandria, after holding 
out against the arms of the Saracens for more than a year, was at 
length abandoned to the enemy. Amrou, in communicating the 
intelligence of the important event to Omar, wrote him also about 
the great Alexandrian Library, and asked him what he should do 
with the books. Omar is said to have rephed : " If these books 
agree with the Koran, they are useless ; if they disagree, they are 
pernicious : in either case they ought to be destroyed." Accord- 
ingly the books were distributed among the four thousand baths 
of the capital, and served to feed their fires for six months. 

The Conquest of Northern Africa (643-689). — The lieuten- 
ants of the Caliphs were obliged to do much and fierce fighting 
before they obtained possession of the oft-disputed shores of 
North Africa. They had to contend not only with the Grseco- 
Roman Christians of the coast, but to battle also with the idolatrous 
Moors of the interior. Furthermore, all Europe had begun to feel 
alarm at the threatening advance of the Saracens ; so now Roman 
soldiers from Constantinople, and Gothic warriors from Italy and 
Spain hastened across the Mediterranean to aid in the protection 
of Carthage, and to help arrest the alarming progress of these 
wild fanatics of the desert. 

But all was of no avail. Destiny had allotted to the followers 
of the Apostle the land of Hannibal and Augustine. Carthage 
was taken and razed to the ground, and the entire coast from the 
Nile to the Atlantic was forced to acknowledge the authority of 
the Caliphs. By this conquest all the countries of Northern 
Africa, whose history for a thousand years had been intertwined 
with that of the opposite shores of Europe, and which at one time 
seemed destined to share in the career of freedom and progress 
opening to the peoples of that continent, were drawn back into 
the fatahsm, the despotism, and the stagnation of the East. From 
being an extension of Europe, they became once more an exten- 
sion of Asia. 



398 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 

Attacks upon Constantinople. — Only fifty years had now passed 
since the death of Mohammed, but during this short time his 
standard had been carried by the lieutenants of his successors 
through Asia to the Hellespont on the one side, and across Africa 
to the Straits of Gibraltar on the other. From each of these two 
points, so remote from each other, the fanatic warriors of the 
desert were casting longing glances across those narrow passages 
of water which alone separated them from the single continent 
that their swift coursers had not yet traversed, or whence the spoil 
of the unbelievers had not yet been borne to the feet of the Vicar 
of the Prophet of God. We may expect to see the Saracens at 
one or both of these points attempt the invasion of Europe. 

The first attempt was made in the East (in 668), where the 
Arabs endeavored to gain control of the Bosporus, by wresting 
Constantinople from the hands of the Eastern emperors. But the 
capital was saved through the use, by the besieged, of a certain 
bituminous compound, called Greek Fire. In 716, the city was 
again besieged by a powerful Moslem army ; but its heroic defence 
by the Emperor Leo III. saved the capital for several centuries 
longer to the Christian world. 

The Conquest of Spain (711). — While the Moslems were thus 
being repulsed from Europe at its eastern extremity, the gates of 
the continent were opened to them by treachery at the western, 
and they gained a foothold in Spain. At the great battle of 
Xeres (711), Roderic, the last of the Visigothic kings, was hope- 
lessly defeated, and all the peninsula, save some mountainous 
regions in the northwest, quickly submitted to the invaders. Thus 
some of the fairest provinces of Europe were lost to Christendom 
for a period of nearly eight hundred years. 

No sooner had the subjugation of the country been effected 
than multitudes of colonists from Arabia, Syria, and North Africa 
crowded into the peninsula, until in a short time the provinces of 
Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and Granada became Arabic in dress, 
manners, language, and religion. 

Invasion of France: Battle of Tours (732). — Four or five 



INVASION OF FRANCE. 399 

years after the conquest of Spain, the Saracens crossed the 
Pyrenees, and estabHshed themselves upon the plains of Gaul. 
This advance of the Moslem hosts beyond the northern wall of 
Spain was viewed with the greatest alarm by all Christendom. It 
looked as though the followers of Mohammed would soon possess 
all the continent. As Draper pictures it, the Crescent, lying in a 
vast semi-circle upon the northern shore of Africa and the curving 
coast of Asia, with one horn touching the Bosporus and the 
other the Straits of Gibraltar, seemed about to round to the full 
and overspread all Europe. 

In the year 732, exactly one hundred years after the death of 
the great Prophet, the Franks, under their renowned chieftain, 
Charles, and their alHes met the Moslems upon the plains of Tours 
in the centre of Gaul, and committed to the issue of a single battle 
the fate of Christendom and the future course of history. The 
desperate valor displayed by the warriors of both armies was 
worthy of the prize at stake. Abderrahman, the Mohammedan 
leader, fell in the thick of the fight, and night saw the complete 
discomfiture of the Moslem hordes. The loss that the sturdy 
blows of the Germans had inflicted upon them was enormous, the 
accounts of that age swelling the number killed to the impossible 
figures of 375,000. The disaster at all events was too overwhelm- 
ing to permit the Saracens ever to recover from the blow, and 
they soon retreated behind the Pyrenees. 

The young civilization of Europe was thus delivered from an 
appalling danger, such as had not threatened it since the fearful 
days of Attila and the Huns. The heroic Duke Charles who had 
led the warriors of Christendom to the glorious victory was given 
the surname Mai-tel, the '■'■ Hammer," in commemoration of the 
mighty blows of his huge battle-axe. 

Changes in the Caliphate. — During the century of conquests 
we have traced, there were many changes in the caliphate. 
Abubekr was followed by Omar (634-644), Othman (644-655), 
and Ali (655-661), all of whom fell by the hands of assassins, for 
from the very first dissensions were rife among the followers of 



400 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 

the Prophet. Ah was the last of the four so-called " Ortho- 
dox Caliphs," all of whom were relatives or companions of the 
Prophet. 

Moawiyah, a usurper, was now recognized as Caliph (66 1). 
He succeeded in making the office hereditary, instead of elective, 
as it hitherto had been, and thus estabhshed what is known as the 
dynasty of the Ommiades,^ the rulers of which family for nearly 
a century issued their commands from the city of Damascus. 

The house of the Ommiades was overthrown by the adherents 
of the house of Ali, who established a new dynasty (750), known 
as that of the Abbassides, so called from Abbas, an uncle of 
Mohammed. The new family, soon after coming to power, estab- 
lished the seat of the royal residence on the lower Tigris, and 
upon the banks of that river founded the renowned city of Bag- 
dad, which was destined to remain the abode of the Abbasside 
Caliphs for a period of five hundred years, — until the subver- 
sion of the house by the Tartars of the North. 

The golden age of the caliphate of Bagdad covers the latter 
part of the eighth and the ninth century of our era, and was illus- 
trated by the reign of the renowned Haroun-al-Raschid (786- 
809), the hero of the Arabian Nights. During this period science, 
philosophy, and literature were most assiduously cultivated by 
the Arabian scholars, and the court of the Caliphs presented in 
culture and luxury a striking contrast to the rude and barbarous 
courts of the kings and princes of Western Christendom. 

The Dismemberment of the Caliphate. — "At the close of the 
first century of the Hegira," writes Gibbon, " the Caliphs were 
the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. The word 
that went forth from the palace at Damascus was obeyed on the 
Indus, on the Jaxartes, and on the Tagus." Scarcely less potent 
was the word that at first went forth from Bagdad. But in a short 
time the extended empire of the Abbassides, through the quarrels 
of sectaries and the ambitions of rival aspirants for the honors of 
the caliphate, was broken in fragments, and from three capitals — 

1 So called from Ommaya, an ancestor of Moawi3'ah. 



SPREAD OF MOHAMMEDANISM. 401 

Bagdad upon the Tigris, Cairo upon the Nile, and Cordova 
upon the Guadalquivir — were issued the commands of three 
rival Caliphs, each of whom was regarded by his adherents as 
the sole rightful spiritual and civil successor of the Apostle. 
All, however, held the great Arabian Prophet in the same rev- 
erence, all maintained with equal zeal the sacred character of 
the Koran, and all prayed with their faces turned toward the holy 
city of Mecca. 

Spread of the Religion and Language of the Arabs. — Just 
as the Romans Romanized the peoples they conquered, s.o did 
the Saracens Saracenize the populations of the countries subjected 
to their authority. Over a large part of Spain, over North Africa, 
Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, Persia, Northern India, and portions of 
Central Asia, were spread — to the more or less perfect exclusion 
of native customs, speech, and worship — the manners, the lan- 
guage, and the religion of the Arabian conquerors.^ 

In Arabia no religion was tolerated save the faith of the Koran. 
But in all the countries beyond the limits of the peninsula, freedom 
of worship was allowed (save to idolaters, who were to be " rooted 
out"); unbelievers, however, must purchase this liberty by the 
payment of a moderate tribute. Yet notwithstanding this tolera- 
tion, the Christian and Zoroastrian religions gradually died out 
almost everywhere throughout the domains of the Caliphs.^ 

The Defects of Islam. — Civilization certainly owes a large debt 
to the Saracens. They preserved and transmitted much that was 
valuable in the science of the Greeks and the Persians (see p. 472). 
They improved trigonometry and algebra, and from India they 

1 Beyond the eastern edge of Mesopotamia, the Arabs failed to impress 
their language upon the subjected peoples, or in any way, save in the matter 
of creed, to leave upon them any important permanent trace of their con- 
quests. 

'" The number of Guebers, or fire-worshippers, in Persia at the present time 
is estimated at from 50,000 to 100,000. About the same number may be 
counted in India, the descendants of the Guebers who fled from Persia at the 
time of the Arabian invasion. They are there called Parsees, from the land 
whence they came. 



402 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 

borrowed the decimal system of notation and introduced it into 
the West. 

Many of the doctrines of Islam, however, are most unfavor- 
able to human liberty, progress, and improvement. It teaches 
fatalism, and thus discourages effort and enterprise. It allows 
polygamy and puts no restraint upon divorce, and thus destroys 
the sanctity of the family hfe. It permits slavery and fosters 
despotism. It inspires a bhnd and bigoted hatred of race and 
creed, and thus puts far out of sight the salutary truth of the 
brotherhood of man. Because of these and other scarcely less 
prominent defects in its teachings, Islam has proved a blight and 
curse to almost every race embracing its sterile doctrines. 

Mohammedism is vastly superior, however, either to fetichism 
or idolatry, and consequently, upon peoples very low in the scale 
of civilization, it has an elevating influence. Thus, upon the negro 
tribes of Central Africa, where it is to-day spreading rapidly, it is 
acknowledged to have a civilizing effect. 



r 



GENERAL REMARKS. 403 



CHAPTER XXXVIL 

CHARLEMAGNE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN 

THE WEST. 

General Remarks. — In the foregoing chapter we traced the 
rise and dechne of the power of the Saracens. We saw the 
Semitic East roused for a moment to a Hfe of tremendous energy 
by the miracle of rehgious enthusiasm, and then beheld it sinking 
rapidly again into inaction and weakness, disappointing all its early 
promises. Manifestly the " Law " is not to go forth from Mecca. 
The Semitic race is not to lead the civiHzation of the world. 

But returning again to the West, we discover among the Teutonic 
barbarians indications of such youthful energy and life, that we 
are at once persuaded that to them has been given the future. 
The Franks, who, with the aid of their confederates, withstood 
the advance of the Saracens upon the field of Tours, and saved 
Europe from subjection to the Koran, are the people that first 
attract our attention. It is among them that a man appears who 
makes the first grand attempt to restore the laws, the order, the 
institutions of the ancient Romans. Charlemagne, their king, is 
the imposing figure that moves amidst all the events of the times ; 
indeed, is the one who makes the events, and renders the period 
in which he lived an epoch in universal history. The story of this 
era affords the key to very much of the subsequent history of 
Europe. 

How Duke Pepin became King of the Franks. — Charles Mar- 
tel, whose tremendous blows at Tours earned for him his significant 
surname (see p. 399), although the real head of the Frankish 
nation, was nominally only an officer of the Merovingian court. 
He died without ever having borne the title of king, notwithstand- 
ing he had exercised all the authority of that office. 



404 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 

But Charles's son Pepin, called le Bref (the Short), on account 
of his diminutive stature, aspired to the regal title and honors. 
He resolved to depose his titular master, and to make himself 
king. Not deeming it wise, however, to do this without the, 
sanction of the Pope, he sent an embassy to represent to him the 
state of affairs, and to solicit his advice. Mindful of recent favors 
that he had received at the hands of Pepin, the Pope gave his 
approval to the proposed scheme by replying that it seemed alto- 
gether reasonable that the one who was king in power should be 
king also in name. This was sufficient. Chilperic — such was 
the name of the Merovingian king — was straightway deposed, 
and placed in a monastery ; while Pepin, whose own deeds to- 
gether with those of his illustrious father had done so much for 
the Frankish nation and for Christendom, was anointed and 
crowned king of the Franks (752), and thus became the first of 
the Carolingian line, the name of his illustrious son Charlemagne 
giving name to the house. 

Beginning of the Temporal Power of the Popes. — In the year 
754 Pope Stephen II., who was troubled by the Lombards (see p. 
374), besought Pepin's aid. Quick to return the favor which the 
head of the Church had rendered him in the establishment of his 
power as king, Pepin straightway crossed the Alps with a large 
army, expelled the Lombards from their recent conquests, and 
made a donation to the Pope of these captured cities and provinces 

(755)- 
This famous gift may be regarded as having laid the basis of the 

temporal power of the Popes ; for though Pepin probably did not 

intend to convey to the Papal See the absolute sovereignty of the 

transferred lancis, after a time the Popes claimed this, and finally 

came to exercise within the limits of the donated territory all the 

rights and powers of independent temporal rulers. So here we 

have the beginning of the celebrated Papal States, and of the 

story of the Popes as temporal princes. 

Accession of Charlemagne. — Pepin died in the year 768, 

and his kingdom passed into the hands of his two sons, Carlo- 



CHARLEMAGNE'S CAMPAIGNS. 



405 



man and Charles ; but within three years the death of Carloman 
and the free votes of the Franks conferred the entire kingdom 
upon Charles, better known as Charlemagne, or '^ Charles the 
Great." 

His Campaigns. — Charlemagne's long reign of nearly half a 
century — he ruled forty-six years — was filled with military expe- 
ditions and conquests, by which he so extended the boundaries of 
his dominions, that at his death they embraced the larger part 
of Western Europe. He made fifty-two military campaigns, the 
chief of which were against the Lombards, the Saracens, and 
the Saxons. Of these we will speak 
briefly. 

Among Charlemagne's first under- 
takings was a campaign against the 
Lombards, whose king, Desiderius, 
was troubling the Pope. Charle- 
magne wrested from Desiderius all 
his possessions, shut up the unfortu- 
nate king in a monastery, and placed 
on his own head the iron crown of 
the Lombards. While in Italy he 
visited Rome, and, in return for the 
favor of the Pope, confirmed the do- 
nation of his father, Pepin (774). 

In the ninth year of his reign Charlemagne gathered his warriors 
for a crusade against the Saracens in Spain. He crossed the 
Pyrenees, and succeeded in wresting from the Moslems all the 
northeastern corner of the peninsula. As he was leading his vic- 
torious bands back across the Pyrenees, the rear of his army 
under the lead of the renowned paladin Roland, while hemmed in 
by the walls of the Pass of Roncesvalles, was set upon by the 
wild mountaineers (the Gascons and Basques), and cut to pieces 
before Charlemagne could give relief. Of the details of this 
event no authentic account has been preserved ; but long after- 
wards it formed the favorite theme of the tales and songs of the 
Troubadours of Southern France. 




CHARLEMAGNE. 
(Head of a bronze equestrian statuette.) 



406 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 

But by far the greater number of the campaigns of Charlemagne 
were directed against the pagan Saxons, who almost alone of the 
German tribes still retained their ancient idolatry. Thirty years 
and more of his reign were occupied in these wars across the 
Rhine. Reduced to submission again and again, as often did the 
Saxons rise in desperate revolt. The heroic Witikind was the 
"second Arminius " (see p. 308) who encouraged his countrymen 
to resist to the last the intruders upon their soil. Finally, Charle- 
magne, angered beyond measure by the obstinacy of the barbarians, 
caused 4500 prisoners in his hands to be massacred in revenge for 
the contumacy of the nation. The Saxons at length yielded, and 
accepted Charlemagne as their sovereign, and Christianity as their 
religion. 

Restoration of the Empire in the West (800). — An event of 
seemingly little real moment, yet, in its influence upon succeeding 
affairs, of the very greatest importance, now claims our attention. 
Pope Leo III. having called upon Charlemagne for aid against a 
hostile faction at Rome, the king soon appeared in person at the 
capital, and punished summarily the disturbers of the peace of 
the Church. The gratitude of Leo led him at this time to make 
a most signal return for the many services of the Frankish king. 
To understand his act a word of explanation is needed. 

For a considerable time a variety of circumstances had been 
fostering a growing feeling of enmity between the Itahans and the 
emperors at Constantinople. Disputes had arisen between the 
churches of the East and those of the West, and the Byzantine 
rulers had endeavored to compel the Italian churches to intro- 
duce certain changes and reforms in their worship, which had 
aroused the most determined opposition of the Roman bishops, 
who denounced the Eastern emperors as schismatics and heretics. 
Furthermore, v/hile persecuting the orthodox churches of the West, 
these unworthy emperors had allowed the Christian lands of the 
East to fall a prey to the Arabian infidels. 

Just at this time, moreover, by the crime of the Empress Irene, 
who had deposed her son Constantine VI., and put out his eyes, 



THE EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 407 

that she might have his place, the Byzantine throne was vacant, in 
the estimation of the ItaHans, who contended that the crown of 
the Caesars could not be worn by a woman. Confessedly it was 
time that the Pope should exercise the power reposing in him as 
Head of the Church, and take away from the heretical and effemi- 
nate Greeks the Imperial crown, and bestow it upon some strong, 
orthodox, and worthy prince in the West. 

Now, among all the Teutonic chiefs of Western Christendom, 
there was none who could dispute the claims to the honor with the 
king of the Franks, the representative of a most illustrious house, 
and the strongest champion of the young Christianity of the West 
against her pagan foes. Accordingly, as Charlemagne was partic- 
ipating in the festivities of Christmas Day in the Cathedral of St. 
Peter at Rome, the Pope approached the kneeling king, — who 
declared afterwards that he was wholly ignorant of the designs of 
his friend, — and placing a crown of gold upon his head, pro- 
claimed him emperor of the Romans, and the rightful and con- 
secrated successor of Csesar Augustus and Constantine (800). 

The intention of Pope Leo was, by a sort of reversal of the act 
of Constantine, to bring back from the East the seat of the Im- 
perial court ; but what he really accomplished was a restoration of 
the line of emperors in the West, which 324 years before had 
been ended by Odoacer, when he dethroned Romulus Augustus 
and sent the royal vestments to Constantinople (see p. 348). We 
say this was what he actually effected ; for the Greeks of the East, 
disregarding wholly what the Roman people and the Pope had 
done, maintained their line of emperors just as though nothing 
had occurred in Italy. So now from this time on for centuries 
there were two emperors, one in the East, and another in the 
West, each claiming to be the rightful successor of Caesar 
Augustus.^ 

1 From this time on it will be proper for us to use the terms Western 
Empire and Eastern Empire. These names should not, however, be em- 
ployed before this time, for the two parts of the old Roman Empire were 
simply administrative divisions of a single empire; we may though, properly 



408 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 

Charlemagne's Death ; his Work. — Charlemagne enjoyed the 
Imperial dignity only fourteen years, dying in 814. Within the 
cathedral at Aachen, in a tomb which he himself had built, the 
dead monarch was placed upon a throne, with his royal robes 
around him, his good sword by his side, and the Bible open on 
his lap. It seemed as though men could not believe that his 
reign was over ; and it was not. 

By the almost universal verdict of students of the mediaeval 
period, Charles the Great has been pronounced the most imposing 
personage that appears between the fall of Rome and the fif- 
teenth century. His greatness has erected an enduring monument 
for itself in his name, the one by which he is best known — 
Charlemagne. 

Charlemagne must not be regarded as a warrior merely. His 
most noteworthy work was that which he effected as a reformer 
and statesman. He founded schools, reformed the laws, collected 
libraries, and extended to the Church a patronage worthy of a Con- 
stantine. In a word, he laid " the foundation of all that is noble 
and beautiful and useful in the history of the Middle Ages." 

Division of the Empire; Treaty of Verdun (843). — Like the 
kingdom of Alexander, the mighty empire of Charlemagne fell to 
pieces soo«i after his death. " His sceptre was the bow of Ulysses 
which could not be drawn by any weaker hand." After a troub- 
lous period of dissension and war, the empire was divided, by the 
important Treaty of Verdun, among Charlemagne's three grand- 
children, — Charles, Lewis, and Lothair. To Charles was given 
France ; to Lewis, Germany ; and to Lothair, Italy and the valley 
of the Rhone, together with a narrow strip of land extending from 
Switzerland to the mouth of the Rhine. With these possessions 
of Lothair went also the Imperial title. 

enough, speak of the Roman empke in the West, and the Roman empire in 
the East, or of the Western and Eastern emperors. See Bryce's Holy Roman 
Empire. The Eastern Empire was destroyed by the Turks in 1453; the line 
of Western Teutonic emperors was maintained until the present century, when 
it was ended by the act of Napoleon in the dismemberment of Germany (1806). 




EUROPE 

IN THE TIME OF 

CHARLES THE GREAT 

814. 



Homan Empire oftheS\ 



Roman lEmpire of the TJ~ 
and its dependent StatesJ^ 



25 30 35 40 



45 



N^. 



S 






^. 



tO^J 



a'^ 



r s 



.^ 



<i 



^ 



Ctersono 



1^^ 




CONCLUSION. 409 

This treaty is celebrated, not only because it was the first great 
treaty among the European states, but also on account of its 
marking the divergence from one another, and in some sense 
the origin, of three of the great nations of modern Europe, — 
of France, Germany, and Italy. 

Conclusion. — After this dismemberment of the dominions of 
Charlemagne, the annals of the different branches of the Caro- 
lingian family become intricate, wearisome, and uninstructive. A 
fate as dark and woeful as that which, according to Grecian story, 
overhung the royal house of Thebes, seemed to brood over the 
house of Charlemagne. In all its different lines a strange and 
adverse destiny awaited the lineage of the great king. The tenth 
century witnessed the extinction of the family. 



! 

'■it 



410 THE NORTHMEN. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE NORTHMEN. 

The People. — Northmen, Norsemen, Scandinavians, are differ- 
ent names applied in a general way to the early inhabitants of 
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. These people formed the north- 
ern branch of the Teutonic family. We cannot be certain when 
they took possession of the northern peninsulas, but it is probable 
that they had entered those countries long before Csesar invaded 
Gaul. • 

The Northmen as Pirates and Colonizers. — For the first eight 
centuries of our era the Norsemen are hidden from our view in 
their remote northern home ; but with the opening of the ninth 
century their black piratical crafts are to be seen creeping along 
all the coasts of Germany, Gaul, and the British Isles, and even 
venturing far up their inlets and creeks. Every summer these 
dreaded sea-rovers made swift descents upon the exposed shores 
of these countries, plundering, burning, murdering; then upon 
the approach of the stormy season, they returned to winter in the 
sheltered fiords of the Scandinavian peninsula. After a time the 
bold corsairs began to winter in the lands they had harried during 
the summer ; and soon all the shores of the countries visited were 
dotted with their stations or settlements. 

These marauding expeditions and colonizing enterprises of the 
Northmen did not cease until the eleventh century was far ad- 
vanced. The consequences oi this wonderful outpouring of the 
Scandinavian peoples were so important and lasting that the move- 
ment has well been compared to the great migration of their Ger- 
man kinsmen in the fifth and sixth centuries. Europe is a second 
time inundated by the Teutonic barbarians. 

The most noteworthy characteristic of these Northmen was the 



ICELAND AND GREENLAND. 411 

readiness with which they laid aside their own manners, habits, 
ideas, and institutions, and adopted those of the country in which 
they estabhshed themselves. " In Russia they became Russians ; 
in France, Frenchmen ; in England, Englishmen." 

Colonization of Iceland and Greenland. — Iceland was settled 
by the Northmen in the ninth century/ and about a century later 
Greenland was discovered and colonized. In 1874 the Icelanders 
celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the settlement of their 
island, an event very like our Centennial of 1876. 

America was reached by the Northmen as early as the begin- 
ning of the eleventh century : the Vineland of their traditions was 
possibly some part of the New England coast. It is believed 
that these first visitors to the continent made settlements in this 
new land ; but no certain remains of these exist. 

The Norsemen in Russia. — While the Norwegians were sailing 
boldly out into the Atlantic and taking possession of the isles and 
coasts of the western seas, the Swedes were pushing their crafts 
across the Baltic and troubling the Slavonian tribes that dwelt 
upon the eastern shore of that sea. Either by right of conquest 
or through the invitation of the contentious Slavonian clans, the 
renowned Scandinavian chieftain Ruric acquired, in the year 862, 
kingly dignity, and became the founder of the first royal line of 
Russia, the successive kings of which family gradually consolidated 
the monarchy which was destined to become one of the foremost 
powers of Europe. 

The Danish Conquest of England. — The Danes began to make 
descents upon the English coast about the beginning of the ninth 

^ Iceland became the literary centre of the Scandinavian world. There 
grew up here a class of scalds, or bards, who, before the introduction of writ- 
ing, preserved and transmitted orally the sagas, or legends, of the Northern 
races. About the twelfth century these poems and legends were gathered 
into collections known as the Elder, or poetic, Edda, and the Younger, or 
prose, Edda. These are among the most interesting and important of the 
literary memorials that we possess of the early Teutonic peoples. They reflect 
faithfully the beliefs, manners, and customs of the Norsemen, and the wild, 
adventurous spirit of their Sea-Kings 



412 THE NORTHMEN. 

century. These sea-rovers spread the greatest terror through the 
island ; for they were not content with plunder, but being pagans, 
they took special delight in burning the churches and monasteries 
of the now Christian Anglo-Saxons, or English, as we shall here- 
after call them. After a time the Danes began to make perma- 
nent settlements in the land. The wretched English were subjected 
to exactly the same treatment that they had inflicted upon the 
Celts. Much need had they to pray the petition of the Litany of 
those days, — " From the fury of the Northmen, Good Lord, de- 
liver us." Just when it began to look as though they would be 
entirely annihilated or driven from the island by the barbarous 
intruders, the illustrious Alfred (871-901) came to the throne of 
Wessex. 

For six years the youthful king fought heroically at the head of 
his brave thanes ; but each succeeding year the possessions of the 
English grew smaller, and finally Alfred and his few remaining fol- 
lowers were driven to take refuge in the woods and morasses. 
After a time, however, the affairs of the English began to brighten. 
The Danes were overpowered, and though allowed to hold the 
northeastern half of the land, still they were forced nominally to 
acknowledge the authority of the English king. 

For a full century following the death of Alfred, his successors 
were engaged in a constant struggle to hold in subjection the 
Danes already settled in the land, or to protect their domains from 
the plundering inroads of fresh bands of pirates from the northern 
peninsulas. In the end, the Danes got the mastery, and Canute, 
king of Denmark, became king of England (1016). P'or eighteen 
years he reigned in a wise and parental way. 

Altogether the Danes ruled in England about a quarter of a cen- 
tury (from 1016 to 1042), and then the old Enghsh line was 
restored in the person of Edward the Confessor. 

The great benefit which resulted to England from the Danish 
conquest, was the infusion of fresh blood into the veins of the 
English people, who through contact with the half-Romanized 
Celts, and especially through the enervating influence of a mo- 



SETTLEMENT IN GAUL. 413 

nastic church, had lost much of that bold, masculine vigor which 
characterized their hardy ancestors. 

Settlement of the Northmen in Gaul. — The Northmen began 
to make piratical descents upon the coasts of Gaul before the end 
of the reign of Charlemagne. Tradition tells how the great king, 
catching sight one day of some ships of the Northmen, burst into 
tears as he reflected on the sufferings that he foresaw the new foe 
would entail upon his country. 

The record of the raids of the Northmen in Gaul, and of their 
final settlement in the north of the country, is simply a repetition of 
the tale of the Danish forays and setdement in England. At last, 
in the year 918, Charles the Simple did exactly what Alfred the 
Great had done across the Channel only a very short time before. 
He granted the adventurous Rollo, the leader of the Northmen 
that had settled at Rouen, a considerable section of country in 
the north-west of Gaul, upon condition of homage and conversion. 

In a short time the barbarians had adopted the ' language, the 
manners, and the religion of the French, and had caught much of 
their vivacity and impulsiveness of spirit, without, however, any 
loss of their own native virtues. This transformation in their 
manners and life we may conceive as being recorded in their 
transformed name — Noi'thmen becoming softened into Norman. 
As has been said, they were simply changed from heathen Vikings, 
delighting in the wild hfe of sea-rover and pirate, into Christian 
knights, eager for pilgrimages and crusades. 



414 RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

Introduction. — In an early chapter of our book we told how 
Christianity as a system of behefs and precepts took possession of 
the different nations and tribes of Europe. We purpose in the 
present chapter to tell how the Christian Church grew into a great 
spiritual monarchy, with the bishop of Rome as its head. 

It must be borne in mind that the bishops of Rome put forth a 
double claim, namely, that they were the supreme head of the 
Church, and also the rightful, divinely appointed suzerain of all 
temporal princes, the " earthly king of kings." Their claim to 
supremacy in all spiritual matters was very generally acknowledged 
throughout at least the West as early as the sixth century, and con- 
tinued to be respected by almost every one until the great Refor- 
mation of the sixteenth century, when the nations of Northern 
Europe revolted, denied the spiritual authority of the Pope, and 
separated themselves from the ancient ecclesiastical empire. 

The papal claim to supremacy in temporal affairs was never 
fully and willingly allowed by the secular rulers of Europe ; yet 
during a considerable part of the Middle Ages, particularly 
throughout the thirteenth century, the Pope was very generally 
acknowledged by kings and princes as their superior and suzerain 
in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. 

Early Organization of the Church. — The Christian Church 
very early in its history became an organized body, with a 
regular gradation of officers, such as presbyters, bishops, metro- 
politans or archbishops, and patriarchs. There were at first four 
regular patriarchates, that is, districts superintended by patriarchs. 
These centred in the great cities of Rome, Constantinople, 



THE BISHOP OF ROME. 415 

Alexandria, and Antioch. Jerusalem was also made an honorary 
patriarchate. 

Primacy of the Bishop of Rome. — It is maintained by some 
that the patriarchs at first had equal and coordinate powers ; that 
is, that no one of the patriarchs had preeminence or authority over 
the others. But others assert that the bishop of Rome from the 
very first was regarded as above the others in dignity and authority, 
and as the divinely appointed head of the visible Church on earth. 

However this may be, the pontiffs of Rome began very early to 
claim supremacy over all other bishops and patriarchs. This claim 
of the Roman pontiffs was based on several alleged grounds, the 
chief of which was that the Church at Rome had been founded by 
St. Peter himself, the first bishop of that capital, to whom Christ 
had given the keys of heaven and hell, and had further invested 
with superlative authority as a teacher and interpreter of the 
Word by the commission, " Feed my Sheep ; . . . feed my Lambs," 
thus giving into his charge the entire flock of the Church. This 
authority and preeminence conferred by the great Head of the 
Church upon Peter was held to be transmitted to his successor 
in the holy office. 

Advantage to the Roman Bishops of the Misfortunes of the 
Empire. — The claims of the Roman bishops were greatly favored 
from the very first by the spell in which the world was held by the 
name and prestige of imperial Rome. Thence it had been accus- 
tomed to receive its commands in all temporal matters ; how very 
natural, then, that thither it should turn for command and guid- 
ance in spiritual affairs. The Roman bishops in thus occupying 
the geographical and political centre of the world enjoyed a great 
advantage over all other bishops and patriarchs. 

Nor was this advantage lost when misfortune befell the imperial 
city. Thus the removal by Constantine the Great of the seat of 
government to the Bosporus (see p. 332), instead of diminishing 
the power and dignity of the Roman bishops, tended powerfully 
to promote their claims and authority. In the phrase of Dante, 
it "gave the Shepherd room." It left the pontiff the foremost 
personage of Rome. ' 



416 RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

Again, when the barbarians came, there came another occasion 
for the Roman bishops to increase their influence, and to raise 
themselves to a position of absolute supremacy throughout the 
West. Rome's extremity was their opportunity. Thus it will be 
recalled how, mainly through the intercession of Leo the Great, 
the fierce Attila was persuaded to turn back and leave Rome 
unpillaged ; and how, through the intercession of the same pious 
bishop, the savage Genseric was prevailed upon to spare the lives 
of the inhabitants of the city at the time of its sack by the Van- 
dals (see pp. 346, 347). So when the emperors, the natural de- 
fenders of the capital, were unable to protect it, the unarmed 
pastor was able, through the awe and reverence inspired by his 
holy office, to render services that could not but result in bringing 
increased honor and dignity to the Roman See. 

But if the misfortunes of Rome tended to the enhancement of 
the reputation and influence of the Roman bishops, much more 
did the final downfall of the capital tend to the same end. Upon 
the surrender of the sovereignty of the West into the hands of the 
emperor of the East, the bishops of Rome became the most im- 
portant persons in Western Europe, and being so far removed from 
the court at Constantinople, gradually assumed almost imperial 
powers. They became the arbiters between the barbarian chiefs 
and the Italians, and to them were referred for decision the disputes 
arising between cities, states, and kings. It is easy to understand 
how directly and powerfully these things tended to strengthen 
the authority and increase the influence of the Roman See. 

The Missions of Rome. — Again, the early missionary zeal of 
the church at Rome made her the mother of many churches, all 
of whom looked up to her with affectionate and grateful loyalty. 
Thus the Angles and Saxons, won to the faith by the missionaries 
of Rome, conceived a deep veneration for the Holy See and be- 
came her most devoted children. To Rome it was that they made 
their most frequent pilgrimages, and thither they sent their offer- 
ing of " St. Peter's penny." And when the Saxons became mis- 
sionaries to their pagan kinsmen of the continent, they transplanted 



THE ICONOCLASTS. 417 

into the heart of Germany these same feelings of fihal attachment 
and love. Thus was Rome exalted in the eyes of the children of 
the churches of the West, until Gregory II. (715-731), writing the 
Eastern emperor, could say with truth, " By them we are consid- 
ered as a God upon earth." 

The Iconoclasts. — The dispute about the worship of images, 
known in church history as the Iconoclastic controversy, which 
broke out in the eighth century between the Greek churches of 
the East and the Latin churches of the West, drew after it far- 
reaching consequences as respects the growing power of the 
Roman pontiffs. 

Even long before the seventh century, the churches both in the 
East and in the West had become crowded with images or pict- 
ures of the apostles, saints, and martyrs, which to the ignorant 
classes at least were objects of adoration and worship. A strong 
party opposed to the use of images^ at last arose in the East. 
These reformers were given the name of Iconoclasts (image- 
breakers). 

Leo the Isaurian, who came to the throne of Constantinople in 
717, was a most zealous Iconoclast. The Greek churches of the 
East having been cleared of images, the emperor resolved to clear 
also the Latin churches of the West of these symbols. To this 
end he issued a decree that they should not be used. 

The bishop of Rome not only opposed the execution of the 
edict, but by the ban of excommunication cut off the emperor 
and all the iconoclastic churches of the East from communion 
with the true Catholic Church. Though images were permanently 
restored in the Eastern churches in 842, still by this time other 
causes of alienation had arisen, and the breach between the two 
sections of Christendom could not now be closed. The final out- 
come was the permanent separation, about the middle of the eleventh 
century, of the churches of the East from those of the West. The 

1 The so-called images of the Greek Church were not statues, but mosaics, 
or paintings. The Eastern Church has at no period sanctioned the use of 
sculptures in worship. 



418 RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

former became known as the Greek, Byzantine, or Eastern Church ; 
the latter as the Latin, Roman, or Catholic Church. 

The East was thus lost to the Roman See. But the loss was 
more than made good by fresh accessions of power in the West. 
In this quarrel with the Eastern emperors the Roman bishops 
cast about for an alliance with some powerful Western prince. 
We have already told the story of the friendship of the Carolin- 
gian kings and the Roman pontiffs, and of the favors they ex- 
changed (see ch. xxxvi). Never did friends render themselves 
more serviceable to each other. The Popes made the descend- 
ants of Charles Martel kings and emperors ; the grateful Prankish 
princes defended the Popes against all their enemies, imperial and 
barbarian, and dowering them with cities and provinces, laid the 
basis of their temporal sovereignty, which continued for more than 
a thousand years (until 1870). 

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction : Appeals to Rome. — Charlemagne 
had recognized the principle, held from early times by the Church, 
that ecclesiastics should be amenable only to the ecclesiastical 
tribunals, by freeing the whole body of the clergy from the juris- 
diction of the temporal courts, in criminal as well as civil cases. 
Gradually the bishops acquired the right to try all cases relating 
to marriage, trusts, perjury, simony, or concerning widows, orphans, 
or crusaders, on the ground that such cases had to do with reli- 
gion. Even the right to try all criminal cases was claimed on the 
ground that all crime is sin, and hence can properly be dealt with 
only by the Church. Persons convicted by the ecclesiastical tri- 
bunals were subjected to penance, imprisoned in the monasteries, 
or handed over to the civil authorities for punishment. 

Thus by the end of the twelfth century the Church had ab- 
sorbed, not only the whole criminal administration of the clergy, 
but in part that of the laity also.^ Now the particular feature of this 
enormous extension of the jurisdiction of the Church tribunals 
which at present it especially concerns us to notice, is the estab- 
lishment of the principle that all cases might be appealed or cited 

1 Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. vii. 



THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE. 419 

from the courts of the bishops and archbishops of the different 
European countries to the Papal See, which thus became the 
court of last resort in all cases affecting ecclesiastics or concerning 
religion. The Pope thus came to be regarded as the fountain of 
justice, and, in theory at least, the supreme judge of Christendom, 
while emperors and kings and all civil magistrates bore the sword 
simply as his ministers to carry into effect his sentences and de- 
crees. 

The Papacy and the Empire. — We must now speak of the re- 
lation of the Popes to the Emperors. About the middle of the 
tenth century Otto the Great of Germany, like a second Charle- 
magne, restored once more the fallen Imperial power, which now 
became known as the Holy Roman Empire, the heads of which 
from this on were the German kings (see p. 502). Here now 
were two world-powers, the Empire and the Papacy, whose claims 
and ambitions were practically antagonistic and irreconcilable. 

There were three different theories of the divinely constituted 
relation of the " World- King " and the " World- Priest." The first 
was that Pope and Emperor were each independently commis- 
sioned by God, the first to rule the spirits of men, the second 
to rule their bodies. Each reigning thus by original divine right, 
neither is set above the other, but both are to cooperate and to 
help each other. The special duty of the temporal power is to 
maintain order in the world and to be the protector of the Church. 

The second theory, the one held by the Imperial party, was that 
the Emperor was superior to the Pope. Arguments from Scripture 
and from the transactions of history were not wanting to support 
this view of the relation of the two world-powers. Thus Christ's 
payment of tribute money was cited as proof that he regarded the 
temporal power as superior to the spiritual ; and again, his submis- 
sion to the jurisdiction of the Roman tribunal was held to be a 
recognition on his part of the supremacy of the civil authority. 
Further, the gifts of Pepin and Charlemagne to the Roman See 
made the Popes, it was maintained, the vassals of the Emperors. 

The third theory, the one held by the Papal party, maintained 



420 RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

that the ordained relation of the two powers was the subordination 
of the temporal to the spiritual authority. This view was main- 
tained by such texts of Scripture as these : " But he that is spirit- 
ual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man ; " ^ "See, 
I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, 
to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, 
to build and to plant." ^ The conception was further illustrated 
by such comparisons as the following. As God has set in the 
heavens two lights, the sun and the moon, so has he established 
on earth two powers, the spiritual and the temporal ; but as the 
moon is inferior to the sun and receives its light from it, so is the 
Emperor inferior to the Pope and receives all power from him. 
Again, the two authorities were likened to the soul and body ; as 
the former rules over the latter, so is it ordered that the spiritual 
power shall rule over and subject the temporal. 

The first theory was the impracticable dream of lofty souls who 
forgot that men are human. Christendom was virtually divided 
into two hostile camps, the members of which were respectively 
supporters of the Imperial and the Papal theory. The most inter- 
esting and instructive chapters of mediaeval history after the tenth 
century are those that record the struggles between Pope and 
Emperor, springing from their efforts to reduce to practice these 
irreconcilable theories.'^ 

1 I Cor. ii. 15. ^ Jer. i. 10. 

^ For a most admirable presentation of this whole subject, consult Bryce's 
The Holy Roman Empire. 



t 



^\ 



SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



(FROM THE OPENING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 

BY COLUMBUS IN 1492.) 



CHAPTER XL. 

FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY. 
I . Feudalism. 

Feudalism defined. — Feudalism is the name given to a special 
form of society and government, based upon a peculiar military 
tenure of land which prevailed in Europe during the latter half 
of the Middle Ages, attaining, however, its most perfect develop- 
ment in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. 

A feudal estate, which might embrace a few acres or an entire 
province, was called a fief, or fend, whence the term Feudalism. 
The person granting a fief was called the siczerain, liege, or lord; 
the one receiving it, his vassal, liegeman, or retaiiier. 

The Ideal System. — The few definitions given above will render 
intelligible the following explanation of the theory of the Feudal 
System. 

In theory, all the soil of the country was held by the king as a 
fief from God (in practice, the king's title was his good sword), 
granted on conditions of fealty to right and justice. Should the 
king be unjust or wicked, he forfeited the kingdom, and it might 
be taken from him and given to another. According to Papal 
theorists it was the Pope who, as God's vicar on earth, had the 
right to pronounce judgment against a king, depose him, and put 
another in his place. 

In the same way that the king received his fief from God, so he 



422 FEUDALISM. 

might grant it out in parcels to his chief men, they, in return 
for it, promising, in general, to be faithful to him as their lord, 
and to serve and aid him. Should these men, now vassals, be 
in any way untrue to their engagement, they forfeited their fiefs, 
and these might be resumed by their suzerain and bestowed upon 
others. 

In like manner these immediate vassals of the king or suzerain 
might parcel out their domains in smaller tracts to others, on the 
same conditions as those upon which they had themselves received 
theirs ; and so on down through any number of stages. 

We have thus far dealt only with the soil of a country. We 
must next notice what disposition was made of the people under 
this system. 

The king in receiving his fief was intrusted with sovereignty over 
all persons living upon it : he became their commander, their law- 
maker, and their judge — in a word, their absolute and irresponsible 
ruler. Then, when he parcelled out his fief among his great men, 
he invested them, within the limits of the fiefs granted, with all 
his own sovereign rights. Each vassal became a virtual sovereign 
in his own domain. And when these great vassals divided their 
fiefs and granted them to others, they in turn invested their vassals 
with those powers of sovereignty with which they themselves had 
been clothed. Thus every holder of a fief became " monarch of 
all he surveyed." 

To illustrate the workings of the system, we will suppose the 
king or suzerain to be in need of an army. He calls upon his own 
immediate vassals for aid ; these in turn call upon their vassals ; 
and so the order runs down through the various ranks of retainers. 
The retainers in the lowest rank rally around their respective lords, 
who, with their bands, gather about their lords, and so on up 
through the rising tiers of the system, until the immediate vassals 
of the suzerain, or chief lord, present themselves before him 
with their graduated trains of followers. The array constitutes a 
feudal army, — a splendidly organized body in theory, but in fact 
an extremely poor instrument for warfare. 



ROMAN AND TEUTONIC ELEMENTS. 423 

Such was the ideal feudal state. It is needless to say that the 
ideal was never perfectly reaUzed. The system simply made more 
or less distant approaches to it in the several European countries. 

Roman and Teutonic Elements in the System. — Like many 
another institution that grew up on the conquered soil of the 
empire, Feudahsm was of a composite character ; that is, it con- 
tained both Roman and Teutonic elements. The spirit of the 
institution was barbarian, but the form was classical. We might 
illustrate the idea we are trying to convey, by referring to the 
mediaeval papal church. It, while Hebrew in spirit, was Roman 
in form. It had shaped itself upon the model of the empire, and 
was thoroughly imperial in its organization. Thus was it with 
Feudalism. Beneath the Roman garb it assumed, beat a German 
life. 

The Ceremony of Homage. — A fief was conferred by a very 
solemn and peculiar ceremony called homage. The person about 
to become a vassal, kneehng with uncovered head, placed his 
hands in those of his future lord, and solemnly vowed to be hence- 
forth his man (Latin hofuo, whence "homage "), and to serve him 
faithfully even with his life. This part of the ceremony, sealed 
with a kiss, was what properly constituted the ceremony of homage. 
It was accompanied by an oath of fealty, and the whole was con- 
cluded by the act of investiture, whereby the lord put his vassal 
in actual possession of the land, or by placing in his hand a clod 
of earth or a twig, symbolized the delivery to him of the estate 
for which he had just now done homage and sworn fealty. 

The Relations of Lord and Vassal. — In general terms the 
duty of the vassal was service ; that of the lord, protection. The 
most honorable service required of the vassal, and the one most 
willingly rendered in a martial age, was military aid. The Uegeman 
must always be ready to follow his lord upon his military expedi- 
tions ; he must defend his lord in battle ; if he should be un- 
horsed, must give him his own animal ; and, if he should be made 
a prisoner, must offer himself as a hostage for his release. 

Among other incidents attaching to a fief were escheat, for- 



424 FEUDALISM. 

feiture, and aids. By Escheat was meant the falHng back of the 
fief into the hands of the lord through failure of heirs. If the 
fief lapsed through disloyalty or other misdemeanor on the part of 
the vassal, this was known as Forfeiture. Aids were sums of money 
which the lord had a right to demand, in order to defray the expense 
of knighting his eldest son, of marrying his eldest daughter, or for 
ransoming his own person in case of captivity. 

The chief return that the lord was bound to make to the vassal 
as a compensation for these various services, was counsel and pro- 
tection — by no means a small return in an age of turmoil and 
insecurity. 

Development of the Feudal System. — After the death of Char- 
lemagne and the partition of his great empire among his feeble 
successors, it seemed as though the world was again falHng back 
into chaos. The bonds of society seemed entirely broken. The 
strong oppressed the weak ; the nobles became highway-robbers 
and marauders. 

It was this distracted state of things that, during the ninth and 
tenth centuries, caused the rapid development of the Feudal Sys- 
tem. It was the only form of social organization, the only form 
of government that it was practicable to maintain in that rude, 
transitional age. All classes of society, therefore, hastened to enter 
the system, in order to secure the protection which it alone could 
afford. Kings, princes, and wealthy persons who had large landed 
possessions which they had never parcelled out as fiefs, were now 
led to do so, that their estates might be held by tenants bound to 
protect them by all the sacred obligations of homage and fealty. 
Again, the smaller proprietors who held their estates by allodial 
tenure voluntarily surrendered them into the hands of some neigh- 
boring lord, and then received them again from him as fiefs, 
that they might claim protection as vassals. They deemed this 
better than being robbed of their property altogether. Thus it 
came that almost all the allodial lands of France, Germany, Italy, 
and Northern Spain were, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh 
centuries, converted into feudal estates, or fiefs. 



CLASSES OF FEUDAL SOCLETY. 425 

Moreover, for like reasons and in like manner, churches, monas- 
teries, and cities became members of the Feudal System. They 
granted out their vast possessions as fiefs, and thus became suze- 
rains and lords. Bishops and abbots became the heads of great 
bands of retainers, and led military expeditions, like temporal 
chiefs. On the other hand, these same monasteries and towns, as 
a means of security and protection, did homage to some powerful 
lord, and thus came in vassalage to him. 

In this way were Church and State, all classes of society from 
the wealthiest suzerain to the humblest tenant, bound together 
by feudal ties. Everything was impressed with the stamp of 
Feudalism. 

Classes of Feudal Society. — Besides the nobility, or the landed 
class, there were under the Feudal System three other classes, 
ii2iVi\t\y, freemen, serfs or villeins, and slaves. These lower classes 
made up the great bulk of the population of a feudal state. The 
freemen were the inhabitants of chartered towns, and in some 
countries the yeomanry, or small farmers, who did not hold their 
lands by a regular feudal tenure. The serfs, or villeins, were the 
laborers who cultivated the ground. The peculiarity of their con- 
dition was that they were not allowed to move from the^ estate 
where they lived, and when the land was sold they passed with it 
just like any fixture. The slaves constituted a still lower class 
made up of captives in war or of persons condemned to bondage 
as a penalty for crime. These chattel slaves, however, almost 
disappeared before the thirteenth century, being converted into 
the lowest order of serfs, which was a step toward freedom. 

Castles of the Nobles. — The lawless and violent character of 
the times during which Feudalism prevailed is well shown by the 
nature of the residences of the nobles. These were strong stone 
fortresses, usually perched upon some rocky eminence, and de- 
fended by moats and towers. France, Germany, Italy, Northern 
Spain, England, and Scotland, in which countries the Feudal Sys- 
tem became most thoroughly developed, fairly bristled with these 
fortified residences of the nobility. One of the most striking and 



426 



FEUDALISM. 



picturesque features of the scenery of many districts of Europe 
at the present time is the ivy-mantled towers and walls of these 
feudal castles, now falling into ruins. 

Causes of the Decay of Feudalism. — Chief among the various 
causes which undermined and at length overthrew Feudalism, 
were the hostility to the system of the kings and the common 
people, the Crusades, the revolt of the cities, and the introduction 
of fire-arms in the art of war. 




FEUDAL CASTLE AT ROUEN. 



The Feudal System was hated and opposed by both the royal 
power and the people. Kings opposed it and sought to break it 
down, because it left them only the semblance of power. The 
people always hated it for the reason that under it they were re- 
garded as of less value than the game in the lord's hunting-park. 

The Crusades, or Holy Wars, that agitated all Europe during the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries did much to weaken the power of 
the nobles ; for in order to raise money for their expeditions, they 
frequendy sold or mortgaged their estates, and in this way power 
and influence passed into the hands of the kings or of the wealthy 
merchants of the cities. Many of the great nobles also perished 



DEFECTS OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 427 

in battle with the Infidels, and their lands escheated to their suz- 
erain, whose domains were thus augmented. 

The growth of the towns also tended to the same end. As they 
increased in wealth and influence, they became able to resist the 
exactions and tyranny of the lord in whose fief they happened to 
be, and eventually were able to secede, as it were, from his author- 
ity, and to make of themselves little republics (see p. 464) . 

Again, the use of gunpowder in war hastened the downfall of 
Feudalism, by rendering the yeoman foot-soldier equal to the 
armor-clad knight. " It made all men of the same height," as 
Carlyle puts it. 

But it is to be noted that, though Feudalism as a system of 
government virtually disappeared during the latter part of the 
mediaeval age, it still continued to exist as a social organization. 
The nobles lost their power and authority as rulers and magis- 
trates, as petty sovereigns, but retained generally their titles, privi- 
leges, and social distinctions. 

Defects of the Feudal System. — Feudalism was perhaps the 
best form of social organization that it was possible to maintain 
in Europe during the mediaeval period ; yet it had many and 
serious defects, which rendered it very far from being a perfect 
social or political system. Among its chief faults may be pointed 
out the two following. First, it rendered impossible the formation 
of strong national governments. Every country was divided and 
subdivided into a vast number of practically independent prin- 
cipalities. Thus, in the tenth century France was partitioned 
among nearly two hundred overlords, all exercising equal and 
coordinate powers of sovereignty. The enormous estates of these 
great lords were again divided into about 70,000 smaller fiefs. 

In theory, as we have seen, the holders of these petty estates 
were bound to serve and obey their overlords, and these great 
nobles were in turn the sworn vassals of the French king. But 
many of these lords were richer and stronger than the king him- 
self, and if they chose to cast off their allegiance to him, he found 
it impossible to reduce them to obedience. 



428 FEUDALISM. 

A second evil of the institution was its exclusiveness. It was, 
in theory, only the person of noble birth that could become the 
holder of a fief. The feudal lords constituted a proud and op- 
pressive aristocracy. It was only as the lower classes in the dif- 
ferent countries gradually wrested from the feudal nobility their 
special and unfair privileges, that a better form of society arose, 
and civiKzation began to make more rapid progress. 

Good Results of the System. — The most noteworthy of the 
good results springing from the Feudal System was the develop- 
ment among its privileged members of that individualism, that love 
of personal independence, which we have seen to be a marked 
trait of the Teutonic character (see p. 369). Turbulent, violent, 
and refractory as was the feudal aristocracy of Europe, it per- 
formed the grand service of keeping alive during the later medi- 
aeval period the spirit of liberty. It prevented Royalty from 
becoming as despotic as it would otherwise have become. Thus 
in England, for instance, the feudal lords held such tyrannical 
rulers as King John in check, until such time as the yeomen and 
the burghers were bold enough and strong enough alone to resist 
their despotically inclined sovereigns. In France, where, unfortu- 
nately, the power of the feudal nobles was broken too soon, — 
before the common people, the Third Estate, were prepared to 
take up the struggle for liberty, — the result was the growth of 
that autocratic, despotic Royalty which led the French people to 
the Revolution and the Reign of Terror. 

Another of the good effects of Feudalism was the impulse it 
gave to certain forms of polite literature. Just as learning and 
philosophy were fostered by the seclusion of the cloister, so were 
poetry and romance fostered by the open and joyous hospitalities 
of the baronial hall. The castle door was always open to the wan- 
dering singer and story-teller, and it was amidst the scenes of 
festivity within that the ballads and romances of mediaeval min- 
strelsy and literature had their birth. 

Still another service which Feudalism rendered to civilization 
was the development within the baronial castle of those ideas and 



ORIGIN OF THE INSTITUTION. 



429 



sentiments — among others, a nice sense of honor and an exalted 
consideration for the female sex — which fomid their noblest ex- 
pression in Chivalry, of which institution and its good effects upon 
the social life of Europe we shall now proceed to speak. 




2 . Chivalry. 

Chivalry defined : Orig^in of the Institution. — Chivalry has been 
aptly defined as the "Flower of FeudaHsm." It was a military in- 
stitution, or order, 
the members of 
which, called 
knights, were 
pledged to the 
protection of the 
church, and to the 
defence of the 
weak and the op- 
pressed. Although 
the germs of the 
system may be 
found in society 
before the age of 
Charlemagne, still 
Chivalry did not 
assume its distinc- 
tive character un- 
til the eleventh 
century, and died 
out during the fif- 
teenth. 

Chivalry seems 

^ , , J -r. A KNIGHT IN FULL ARMOR. 

to have had t ranee 

(Drawing by Alphonse de Neuville.) 

for its cradle. That 

country at least was its true home. There it was that it exhibited 




430 



CHIVALR Y. 



its most complete and romantic development. Yet its influence 
was felt everywhere and in everything. It colored all the events and 
enterprises of the latter half of the Middle Ages. The hterature 
of the period is instinct with its spirit. The Crusades, or Holy 
Wars, the greatest undertakings of the mediaeval ages, were pre- 
dominantly enterprises of the Christian chivalry of Europe. 

Training of the Knight. — When Chivalry had once become 
established, all the sons of the nobility, save such as were to enter 
the holy orders of the Church, were set apart and disciplined for its 
service. The sons of the poorer nobles were usually placed in the 

family of some supe- 
rior lord of renown 
and wealth, whose 
castle became a sort 
of school, where they 
were trained in the 
duties and exercises 
of knighthood. 

This education be- 
gan at the early age 
of seven, the youth 
bearing the name of 
page or varlet until 
he attained the age 
of fourteen, when he 
acquired the title of 
squire or esquire. At 
the age of twenty- 
one the squire became a knight, being then introduced to the 
order of knighthood by a peculiar and impressive service. After 
a long fast and vigil, the candidate listened to a lengthy ser- 
mon on his duties as a knight. Then kneeling, as in the feudal 
ceremony of homage, before the lord conducting the services, he 
vowed to defend religion and the ladies, to succor the distressed, 
and ever to be faithful to his companion knights. His arms were 




CONFERRING KNIGHTHOOD ON THE FIELD OF 
BATTLE. 



THE TOURNAMENT. 



431 



now presented to him, and his sword girded on, when the lord, 
striking him with the flat of his sword on the shoulders or the 
neck, said, " In the name of God, of St. Michael, and of St. 
George, I dub thee knight : be brave, bold, and loyal." 

Sometimes knighthood was conferred with less ceremony upon 
the battle-field, as the reward of signal bravery or address. 

The Tournament. — The tournament was the favorite amuse- 
ment of the age of Chivalry. It was a mimic battle between two 
companies of noble knights, armed usually with pointless swords or 




A TOURNAMENT. 

blunted lances. In the universal esteem in which the participants 
were held, it reminds us of the Sacred Games of the Greeks ; 
while in the fierce and sanguinary character it sometimes assumed, 
especially before it was brought fully under the spirit of Chivalry, it 
recalls the gladiatorial combats of the Roman amphitheatre. 

Decline of Chivalry. — The fifteenth century was the evening 
of Chivalry. The decline of the system resulted from the opera- 
tion of the same causes that effected the overthrow of Feudalism. 
The changes in the mode of warfare which helped to do away 
with the feudal baron and his mail-clad retainers, likewise tended 



432 CHIVALRY. 

to destroy knight-errantry. And then as civihzation advanced, 
new feehngs and sentiments began to claim the attention, and to 
work upon the imagination of men. Governments, too, became 
more regular, and the increased order and security of society 
rendered less needful the services of the gallant knight in behalf 
of distressed maidens. 

Influence of Chivalry. — The system of Chivalry had many 
vices, chief among which were its exclusive, aristocratic tenden- 
cies. An indignant writer declares that "it is not probable that 
the knights supposed they could be guilty o-f injustice to the lower 
classes." These were regarded with indifference or contempt, 
and considered as destitute of any claims upon those of noble 
birth as were beasts of burden or the game of the chase. It is 
always the young and beautiful lady of gentle birth whose wrongs 
the valiant knight is risking his life to avenge, always the smiles of 
the "queen of love and beauty" for which he is splintering his 
lance in the fierce tournament. The fostering of this aristocratic 
spirit was one of the most serious faults of Chivalry. 

But to speak of the beneficial, refining influences of Chivalry, 
we should say that it undoubtedly contributed powerfully to lift 
that sentiment of respect for the gentler sex that characterized all 
the Northern nations, into that reverence for womanhood which 
forms one of the distinguishing characteristics of the present age. 

Again, Chivalry did much towards producing that type of man- 
hood among us which we rightly think to surpass any ever formed 
under the influences of antiquity. Just as Christianity gave to the 
world an ideal manhood which it was to strive to realize, so did 
Chivalry hold up an ideal to which men were to conform their 
lives. Men, indeed, have never perfectly realized either the ideal 
of Christianity or that of Chivalry ; but the influence which these 
two ideals has had in shaping and giving character to the lives of 
men cannot be overestimated. Together, through the enthusiasm 
and effort awakened for their realization, they produced a new 
type of manhood, which we indicate by the phrase "a knightly 
and Christian character." 



INTR OD UC TOR Y. 



433 




LANDING IN ENGLAND OF WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.) 



CHAPTER XLI. 

THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 

Introductory. — The history of the Normans — the name, it will 
be recalled, of the transformed Scandinavians who settled in 
Northern Gaul (see p. 413) — is simply a continuation of the 
story of the Northmen. The most important of the enterprises 
of the Normans, and one followed by consequences of the greatest 
magnitude not only to the conquered people, but indirectly to the 
world, was their conquest of England.^ 

Events leading up to the Conquest. — In the year 1066 Edward 
the Confessor died, in whose person, it will be recalled, the old 
Enghsh line was restored after the Danish usurpation (see p. 412). 
Immediately the Witan, that is, the assembly of the chief men 



1 Not long before the Normans conquered England, they succeeded in gain- 
ing a foothold in the south of Italy, where they established a sort of repubhc, 
which ultimately included the island of Sicily. The fourth president of the 
commonwealth was the celebrated Robert Guiscard (d. 1085), who spread the 
renown of the Norman name throughout the Mediterranean lands. This 
Norman state, converted finally into a kingdom, lasted until late in the twelfth 
century (1194). 



434 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 

of the nation, in accordance with the dying wish of the king, 
chose Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, son of the famous Godwin, 
and the best and strongest man in all England, to be his suc- 
cessor. 

When the news of the action of the Witan and of Harold's 
acceptance of the English crown was carried across the channel 
to William, Duke of Normandy, he was really or feignedly 
transported with rage. He declared that Edward, who was his 
cousin, had during his lifetime promised the throne to him, and 
that Harold had assented to this, and by solemn oath engaged to 
sustain him. He now demanded of Harold that he surrender to 
him the usurped throne, threatening the immediate invasion of the 
island in case he refused. King Harold answered the demand by 
expelling from the country the Normans who had followed Edward 
into the kingdom, and by collecting fleets and armies for the 
defence of his dominions. 

While Harold was watching the southern coasts against the 
Normans, a Danish host appeared in the north, led by Tostig, 
the traitor brother of the English king, and Harold Hardrada, 
king of Norway. The English army in that quarter, attempting 
to withstand the invaders, was cut to pieces ; and the important 
city of York fell into the hands of the Northmen. As soon as 
news of this disaster was borne to King Harold in the south, he 
instantly marched northward with his army, and at Stamford 
Bridge met the invaders, and there gained a decisive victory over 
them. 

The Battle of Hastings (1066). — The festivities that followed 
the victory of Stamford Bridge were not yet ended, when a mes- 
senger from the south brought to Harold intelligence of the land- 
ing of the Normans. Hurrying southward with his army, Harold 
came face to face with the forces of William at Senlac, a short 
distance from the port of Hastings. 

The battle soon opened — the battle that was to determine the 
fate of England. It was begun by a horseman riding out from 
the Norman lines and advancing alone toward the English army, 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE LAND. 



435 



tossing up his sword and skilfully catching it as it fell, and singing 
all the while the stirring battle-song of Charlemagne and Roland 
(see p. 405). The English watched with astonishment this ex- 
hibition of " careless dexterity," and if they did not contrast the 
vivacity and nimbleness of the Norman foe with their own heavy and 
clumsy manners, others at least have not failed to do so for them. 

The battle once joined, the conflict was long and terrific. The 
day finally went against the Enghsh. Harold fell, pierced through 
the eye by an arrow ; and William was master of the field (1066). 

The conqueror now marched upon London, and at Westminster 
Abbey, on Christmas Day, 1066, was crowned and anointed king 
of England. 




BATTLE OF HASTINGS. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.) 

The Distribution of the Land. — Almost the first act of William 
after he had established his power in England was to fulfil his 
promise to the nobles who had aided him in his enterprise, by dis- 
tributing among them the unredeemed^ estates of the English who 
had fought at Hastings in defence of their king and country. 
Large as was the number of these confiscated estates, there would 
have been a lack of land to satisfy all, had not subsequent upris- 
ings against the authority of William afforded him an opportunity 



1 " When the lands of all those who had fought for Harold were confis- 
cated, those who were willing to acknowledge William were allowed to redeem 
theirs, either paying money at once, or giving hostages for the payment." — 
Stubbs, Const, Hist. I. 258. 



436 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 

to confiscate almost all the soil of England as forfeited by trea- 
son. 

Profiting by the lesson taught by the wretched condition of 
France, which country was kept in a state of constant turmoil by 
a host of feudal chiefs and lords many of whom were almost or 
quite as powerful as the king himself, William took care that in the 
distribution no feudatory should receive an entire shire, save in two 
or three exceptional cases. To the great lord to whom he must 
needs give a large fief, he granted, not a continuous tract of land, 
but several estates, or manors, scattered in different parts of the 
country, in order that there might be no dangerous concentration 
of property or power in the hands of the vassal. He also re- 
quired of all the sub-vassals of the realm, in addition to their oath 
of allegiance to their own lord, an oath of fealty to the crown. 
This was a most important modification of feudal custom. On 
the Continent, the sub-tenant swore allegiance to his own lord 
simply, and was in duty bound to aid him in all his wars, even in 
one against the sovereign. But the oath of allegiance to himself 
exacted by William of all holders of fiefs, just reversed this, and 
made it the first duty of the sub-vassal, even in the case of a war 
between his lord and the king, to follow and obey the king. 
Furthermore, William denied to his feudatories the right of coin- 
ing money or making laws ; and by other wise restrictions upon 
their power, he saved England from those endless contentions and 
petty wars that were distracting almost every other country of 
Europe. 

The Norman Successors of the Conqueror. — For nearly three- 
quarters of a century after the death of William the Conqueror, 
England was ruled by Norman kings.^ The latter part of this 
period was a troublous time. The succession to the crown com- 
ing into dispute, civil war broke out. The result of the contention 

1 William II., known as Rufus "the Red" (1087-1100); Henry I., sur- 
named Beauclerc, "the good scholar" (1100-1135); and Stephen of Blois 
(1135-1154). William and Henry were sons, and Stephen a grandson, of the 
conqueror. 



ADVANTAGES TO ENGLAND. 437 

was a decline in the royal power, and the ascendency of the Nor- 
man barons, who for a time made England the scene of the same 
feudal anarchy that prevailed at this time upon the Continent. 
Finally, in 1154, the Norman dynasty gave place to that of the 
Plantagenets. Under Henry II., the first king of the new house, 
and an energetic and strong ruler, the barons were again brought 
into proper subjection to the crown, and many castles which had 
been built without royal permission during the preceding anarchical 
period, and some of which at least were little better than robbers' 
dens, were destroyed. 

Advantages to England of the Norman Conquest. — The most 
important and noteworthy result of the Norman Conquest of 
England, was the establishment in the island of a strong central- 
ized government. England now for the first time became a real 
kingdom. 

A second result of the Conquest was the founding of a new 
feudal aristocracy. Even to this day there is a great preponder- 
ance of Norman over EngHsh blood in the veins of the nobility of 
England. 

A third result was the bringing of England into more intimate 
relations with the nations of continental Europe, by which means 
her advance in art, science, and general culture was greatly pro- 
moted. 



-,^ 



438 



CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES. 




CRUSADERS ON THE MARCH. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

THE CRUSADES. 

(1096-1272.) 

i: Introductory: Causes of the Crusades. 

General Statement. — The Crusades were great military expedi- 
tions undertaken by the Christian nations of Europe for the pur- 
pose of rescuing from the hands of the Mohammedans the holy 
places of Palestine. They were eight in number, the first four 
being sometimes called the Principal Crusades, and the remaining 
four the Minor Crusades. Besides these there were a Children's 
Crusade, and several other expeditions, which, being insignificant 
in numbers or results, are not usually enumerated. 

Causes of the Crusades. — Among the early Christians it was 
thought a pious and meritorious act to undertake a journey to 



PETER THE HERMIT. 439 

some sacred place. Especially was it thought that a pilgrimage 
to the land that had been trod by the feet of the Saviour of the 
world, to the Holy City that had witnessed his martyrdom, was a 
peculiarly pious undertaking, and one which secured for the pil- 
grim the special favor and blessing of, Heaven. 

The Saracen caliphs, for the four centuries and more that they 
held possession of Palestine, pursued usually an enlightened policy 
towards the pilgrims, even encouraging pilgrimages as a source of 
revenue. But in the eleventh century the Seljukian Turks, a 
prominent Tartar tribe, zealous proselytes of Islam, wrested from 
the caliphs almost all their Asiatic possessions. The Christians 
were not long in realizing that power had fallen into new hands. 
Pilgrims were insulted and persecuted in every way. The churches 
in Jerusalem were destroyed or turned into stables. 

Now, if it were a meritorious thing to make a pilgrimage to the 
Holy Sepulchre, much more would it be a pious act to rescue the 
sacred spot from the profanation of infidels. This was the convic- 
tion that changed the pilgrim into a warrior, — this the sentiment 
that for two centuries and more stirred the Christian world to its 
profoundest depths, and cast the population of Europe in wave 
after wave upon Asia. 

Although this religious feehng was the principal cause of the 
Crusades, still there was another concurring cause which must not 
be overlooked. This was the restless, adventurous spirit of the 
Teutonic peoples of Europe, who had not as yet outgrown their 
barbarian instincts. The feudal knights and lords, just now ani- 
mated by the rising spirit of chivalry, were very ready to enlist in 
an undertaking so consonant with their martial feelings and their 
new vows of knighthood. 

Preaching of Peter the Hermit. — The immediate cause of the 
First Crusade was the preaching of Peter the Hermit, a native of 
Picardy, in France. Having been commissioned by Pope Urban 
II. to preach a crusade, the Hermit traversed all Italy and France, 
addressing everywhere, in the church, in the street, and in the 
open field, the crowds that flocked about him, moving all hearts 



440 CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES. 

with sympathy or firing them with indignation, as he recited the 
sufferings of their brethren at the hands of the infidels, or pictured 
the profanation of the holy places, polluted by the presence and 
insults of the unbelievers. 

The Councils of Placentia and Clermont. — While Peter the 
Hermit had been arousing the warriors of the West, the Turks had 
been making constant advances in the East, and were now threat- 
ening Constantinople itself. The Greek emperor (Alexius Com- 
nenus) sent urgent letters to the Pope, asking for aid against the 
infidels, representing that, unless assistance was extended immedi- 
ately, the capital with all its holy relics must soon fall into the 
hands of the barbarians. 

Urban called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in 
Italy, to consider the appeal (1095), but nothing was effected. 
Later in the same year a new council was convened at Clermont, 
in France, Urban purposely fixing the place of meeting among the 
warm-tempered and martial Franks. The Pope himself was one 
of the chief speakers. He was naturally eloquent, so that the man, 
the cause, and the occasion all conspired to achieve one of the 
greatest triumphs of human oratory. He pictured the humiliation 
and misery of the provinces of Asia ; the profanation of the places 
made sacred by the presence and footsteps of the Son of God ; 
and then he detailed the conquests of the Turks, until now, with 
all Asia Minor in their possession, they were threatening Europe 
from the shores of the Hellespont. "When Jesus Christ summons 
you to his defence," exclaimed the eloquent pontiff", " let no base 
aff'ection detain you in your homes ; whoever will abandon his 
house, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his children, or 
his inheritance, for the sake of my name, shall be recompensed a 
hundred-fold, and possess life eternal." 

Here the enthusiasm of the vast assembly burst through every 
restraint. With one voice they cried, Dieu le volt! Dieu le volt I 
" It is the will of God ! It is the will of God ! " Thousands 
immediately affixed the cross to their garments,^ as a pledge of 

1 Hence the name Crusade given to the Holy Wars, from old French crois^ 
cross. 



MUSTERING OF THE CRUSADERS. 441 

their sacred engagement to go forth to the rescue of the Holy 
Sepulchre. The fifteenth day of August of the following year was 
set for the departure of the expedition. 

2. The First Crusade (i 096-1 099). 

Mustering of the Crusaders. — All Western Europe now rang 
with the cry, " He who will not take up his cross and follow me, 
is not worthy of me." The contagion of enthusiasm seized all 
classes ; for while the religious feehngs of the age had been spe- 
cially appealed to, all the various sentiments of ambition, chivalry, 
love of license, had also been skilfully enlisted on the side of the 
undertaking. The council of Clermont had declared Europe to be 
in a state of peace, and pronounced anathemas against any one 
who should invade the possessions of a prince engaged in the holy 
war. By further edicts of the assembly, the debtor was released 
from meeting his obligations while a soldier of the Cross, and dur- 
ing this period the interest on his debt was to cease ; and the 
criminal, as soon as he assumed the badge of the crusader, was 
by that act instantly absolved from all his sins of whatever nature. 

Under such inducements princes and nobles, bishops and 
priests, monks and anchorites, saints and sinners, rich and poor, 
hastened to enroll themselves beneath the consecrated banner. 
" Europe," says Michaud, "appeared to be a land of exile, which 
every one was eager to quit." 

The Vanguard. — Before the regular armies of the crusaders 
were ready to move, those who had gathered about Peter the 
Hermit, becoming impatient of delay, urged him to place himself 
at their head and lead them at once to the Holy Land. Dividing 
command of the mixed multitudes with a poor knight, called 
Walter the Penniless, and followed by a throng of about 80,000 
persons, among whom were many women and children, the Hermit 
set out for Constantinople by the overland route through Germany 
and Hungary. Thousands of the crusaders fell in battle with the 
natives of the countries through which they marched, and thou- 



442 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

sands more perished miserably of hunger and exposure. Those 
that crossed the Bosporus were surprised by the Turks, and 
almost all were slaughtered. Thus perished the forlorn hope of 
the First Crusade. 

March of the Main Body. — Meanwhile there were gathering in 
the West disciplined armies composed of men worthy to be 
champions of the holy cause they had espoused. Godfrey of 
Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, and Tancred, " the mirror of knight- 
hood," were among the most noted of the leaders of the different 
divisions of the army. The expedition numbered about 700,000 
men, of whom fully 100,000 were mailed knights. 

The crusaders traversed Europe by different routes and re- 
assembled at Constantinople. Crossing the Bosporus, they first 
captured Nicsea, the Turkish capital, in Bithynia, and then set out 
across Asia Minor for Syria. The line of their dreary march 
between Nicaea and Antioch was whitened with the bones of 
nearly one-half their number. Arriving at Antioch, the surviv- 
ors captured that place, and then, after some delays, pushed on 
towards Jerusalem. 

When at length the Holy City burst upon their view, a perfect 
delirium of joy seized the crusaders. They embraced one another 
with tears of joy, and even embraced and kissed the ground on 
which they stood. As they passed on, they took off their shoes, 
and marched with uncovered head and bare feet, singing the words 
of the prophet: ^'Jerusalem, lift up thine eyes, and behold the 
liberator who comes to break thy chains." 

The first assault made by the Christians upon the walls of the 
city was repulsed ; but the second was successful, and the city was 
in the hands of the crusaders (1099). A terrible slaughter of the 
infidels now took place. For seven days the carnage went on, at 
the end of which time scarcely any of the Moslem faith were left 
alive. The Christians took possession of the houses and property 
of the infidels, each soldier having a right to that which he had 
first seized and placed his mark upon. 

Founding of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. — No sooner 



RELIGIOUS ORDERS OE KNIGHTHOOD. 443 

was Jerusalem in the hands of the crusaders than they set them- 
selves to the task of organizing a government for the city and 
country they had conquered. The government which they estab- 
lished was a sort of feudal league, known as the Latin Kingdom of 
Jerusalem. At its head was placed Godfrey of Bouillon, the most 
vahant and devoted of the crusader knights. The prince refused 
the title and vestments of royalty, declaring that he would never 
wear a crown of gold in the city where his Lord and Master had 
worn a crown of thorns. The only title he would accept was that 
of " Defender of the Holy Sepulchre." 

Many of the crusaders, considering their vows fulfilled, now set 
out on their return to their homes, some making their way back 
by sea and some by land. Godfrey, Tancred, and a few hundred 
other knights, were all that stayed behind to maintain the con- 
quests that had been made, and to act as guardians of the holy 
places. 

3. The Second Crusade (1147-1149). 

Origin of the Religious Orders of Knighthood. — In the inter- 
val between the Second and the Third Crusade, the two famed 
religious military orders, known as the Hospitallers and the Tem- 
plars,^ were formed. A little later, during the Third Crusade, still 
another fraternity, known as the Teutonic Knights was established. 
The objects of all the orders were the care of the sick and 
wounded crusaders, the entertainment of Christian pilgrims, the 
guarding of the holy places, and ceaseless battling for the Cross. 
These fraternities soon acquired a military fame that was spread 
throughout the Christian world. They were joined by many of 
the most illustrious knights of the West, and through the gifts of 

1 The Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, took their name from the fact 
that the organization was first formed among the monks of the Hospital of 
St. John, at Jerusalem; while the Templars, or Knights of the Temple, were 
so called on account of one of the buildings of the brotherhood occupying 
the site of Solomon's Temple. 



444 SECOND AND THIRD CRUSADES. 

the pious acquired great wealth, and became possessed of numer- 
ous estates and castles in Europe as well as in Asia. 

Preaching of St. Bernard ; Failure of the Crusade. — In the 
year 1 146, the city of Edessa, the bulwark ot the Latin Kingdom 
of Jerusalem on the side towards Mesopotamia, was taken by the 
Turks, and the entire population was slaughtered, or sold into 
slavery. This disaster threw the entire West into a state of the 
greatest alarm, lest the little Christian state, established at such 
cost of tears and suffering, should be completely overwhelmed, 
and all the holy places should again fall into the hands of the 
infidels. 

The scenes that marked the opening of the First Crusade were 
now repeated in all the countries of the West. St. Bernard, an 
eloquent monk, was the second Peter the Hermit, who went every- 
where, arousing the warriors of the Cross to the defence of the 
birthplace of their religion. The contagion of the holy enthusiasm 
seized not only barons, knights, and the common people, which 
classes alone participated, in the First Crusade, but kings and 
emperors were now infected with the sacred frenzy. Conrad III., 
emperor of Germany, was persuaded to leave the affairs of his 
distracted empire in the hands of God, and consecrate himself to 
the defence of the sepulchre of Christ. Louis VII., king of 
France, was led to undertake the crusade through remorse for an 
act of great cruelty that he had perpetrated upon some of his 
revolted subjects.^ 

The strength of both the French and the German division ot 
the expedition was wasted in Asia Minor, and the crusade accom- 
plished nothing. 

4. The Third Crusade (1189-1192). 

The Three Leaders. — The Third Crusade was caused by the 
capture of Jerusalem (1187) by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt. 

1 The act which troubled the king's conscience was the burning of thirteen 
hundred people in a church, whither they had fled for refuge. 



DEATH OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. 445 

Three of the great sovereigns of Europe, Frederick Barbarossa of 
Germany, PhiHp Augustus of France, and Richard I. of England, 
assumed the Cross, and set out, each at the head of a large army, 
for the recovery of the Holy City. 

The English king, Richard, afterwards given the title of Caur 
de Lio?i, the "Lion-hearted," in memory of his heroic exploits in 
Palestine, was the central figure among the Christian knights of 
this crusade. He raised money for the enterprise by the perse- 
cution and robbery of the Jews ; by the imposition of an unusual 
tax upon all classes ; and by the sale of offices, dignities, and the 
royal lands. When some one expostulated with him on the means 
employed to raise money, he declared that " he would sell the city 
of London, if he could find a purchaser." 

Death of Frederick Barbarossa : Siege of Acre. — The Ger- 
man army, attempting the overland route, was consumed in Asia 
Minor by the hardships of the march and the swords of the Turks. 
The Emperor Frederick, according to the most probable accounts, 
was drowned while crossing a swollen stream, and the most of the 
survivors of his army, disheartened by the loss of their leader, 
returned to Germany. 

The English and French kings finally mustered their forces 
beneath the walls of Acre, which city the Christians were then 
besieging. It is estimated that 600,000 men were engaged in the 
investment of the place. After one of the longest and most costly 
sieges they ever carried on in Asia, the crusaders at last forced 
the place to capitulate, in spite of all the efforts of Saladin to ren- 
der the garrison relief. 

Richard and Saladin. — The knightly adventures and chival- 
rous exploits which mark the career of Richard in the Holy Land 
read like a romance. Nor was the chief of the Mohammedans, 
the renowned Saladin, lacking in any of those knightly virtues 
with which the writers of the time invested the character of the 
English hero. At one time, when Richard was sick with a fever, 
Saladin, knowing that he was poorly supplied with delicacies, sent 
him a gift of the choicest fruits of the land. And on another 



446 THE FOURTH CRUSADE. 

occasion, Richard's horse having been killed in battle, the sultan 
caused a fine Arabian steed to be led to the Christian camp as a 
present for his rival. 

For two years did Richard the Lion-hearted vainly contend in 
almost daily combat with his generous antagonist for the posses- 
sion of the tomb of Christ. He finally concluded a truce of three 
years and eight months with Saladin, which provided that the 
Christians during that period should have free access to the holy 
places, and remain in undisturbed possession of the coast from 
Jaffa to Tyre. 

5. The Fourth Crusade (120 2- 12 04). 

Capture of Constantinople by the Latins. — None of the Cru- 
sades after the Third effected much in the Holy Land ; either 
their force was spent before reaching it, or they were diverted from 
their purpose by different objects and ambitions. 

The crusaders of the Fourth expedition captured Constantino- 
ple instead of Jerusalem. The circumstances were these : A usur- 
per had seized upon the Byzantine throne. The rightful claimant, 
Alexius, besought the aid of the Frankish warriors to regain the 
sceptre. The Christian knights listened favorably to his appeals. 
The Venetians, in consideration of a share of the conquests that 
might be made, also joined their forces to those of the crusaders. 
Constantinople was taken by storm, and Alexius was invested 
with the Imperial authority. 

Scarcely was Alexius seated upon the throne, before the turbu- 
lent Greeks engaged in a revolt which resulted in his death. The 
crusaders now resolved to take possession of the capital, and 
set a Latin prince on the throne of Constantine. The determina- 
tion was carried out. Constantinople was taken a second time by 
storm, and sacked, and Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was crowned 
Emperor of the East. 

The Latin empire thus established lasted only a little over half 
a century (i 204-1 261). The Greeks, at the end of this period, 



THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE. 447 

succeeded in regaining the throne, which they then held until the 
capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. 

6. Close of the Crusades : Their Results. 

The Children's Crusade (12 12). — During the interval between 
the Fourth and the Fifth Crusade, the epidemical fanaticism that 
had so long agitated Europe seized upon the children, resulting in 
what is known as the Children's Crusade. 

The preacher of this crusade was a child about twelve years of 
age, a French peasant lad, named Stephen, who became persuaded 
that Jesus Christ had commanded him to lead a crusade of chil- 
dren to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. The children became 
wild with excitement, and flocked in vast crowds to the places 
appointed for rendezvous. Nothing could restrain them or thwart 
their purpose. " Even bolts and bars," says an old chronicler, 
" could not hold them." 

The movement excited the most diverse views. Some declared 
that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and quoted such Scriptural 
texts as these to justify the enthusiasm : " A child shall lead 
them ; " " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast 
ordained praise." Others, however, were quite as confident that 
the whole thing was the work of the Devil. 

The great majority of those who collected at the rallying places 
were boys under twelve years of age, but there were also many 
girls. The German children, 50,000 in number, crossed the Alps, 
and marched down the Italian shores, looking for a miraculous 
pathway through the Mediterranean. From Brundusium 2000 or 
3000 of the little crusaders sailed away into oblivion. Not a 
word ever came back from them. 

The French children — about 30,000 in number — set out from 
the place of rendezvous for Marseilles. Those that sailed from 
that port were betrayed, and sold as slaves in Alexandria and 
other Mohammedan slave markets. 

This remarkable spectacle of the children's crusade affords the 



448 CLOSE OF THE CRUSADES. 

most striking exhibition possible of the ignorance, superstition, 
and fanaticism that characterized the period. Yet we cannot but 
reverence the holy enthusiasm of an age that could make such 
sacrifices of innocence and helplessness in obedience to what was 
believed to be the will of God. 

The children's expedition marked at once the culmination and 
the decline of the crusading movement. The fanatic zeal that 
inspired the first crusaders was already dying out. " These chil- 
dren," said the Pope, referring to the young crusaders, " reproach 
us with having fallen asleep, whilst they were flying to the assist- 
ance of the Holy Land." 

The Minor Crusades: End of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. — 
The last four expeditions — the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth 
— undertaken by the Christians of Europe against the infidels of 
the East, may be conveniently grouped as the Minor Crusades. 
They were marked by a less fervid and holy enthusiasm than that 
which characterized the first movements, and exhibit among those 
taking part in them the greatest variety of objects and ambitions.^ 
The flame of the Crusades had burned itself out, and the fate 
of the little Christian kingdom in Asia, isolated from Europe, 
and surrounded on all sides by bitter enemies, became each 
day more and more apparent. Finally the last of the places 

1 The Fifth Crusade (1216-1220) was led by the kings of Hungary and 
Cyprus. Its strength was wasted in Egypt, and it resulted in nothing. The 
Sixth Crusade (i 227-1 229), headed by Frederick II. of Germany, succeeded 
in securing from the Saracens the restoration of Jerusalem, together with sev- 
eral other cities of Palestine. The Seventh Crusade (i 249-1 254) was under 
the lead of Louis IX. of France, surnamed the Saint, The Eighth Crusade 
( 1 270-1 272) was incited by the fresh misfortunes that, towards the close of 
the thirteenth century, befell the Christian kingdom in Palestine. The two 
principal leaders of the expedition were Louis IX. of France, and Prince 
Edward of England, afterwards Edward I. Louis directed his forces against 
the Moors about Tunis, in North Africa. Here the king died of the plague. 
Nothing was effected by this division of the expedition. The division led by 
the English prince, was, however, more fortunate. Edward succeeded in cap- 
turing Nazareth, and in compelling the sultan of Egypt to agree to a treaty 
favorable to the Christians (1272). 



RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES. 449 

(Acre) held by the Christians fell before the attacks of the Mame- 
lukes of Egypt, and with this event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 
came to an end (1291). The second great combat between 
Mohammedanism and Christianity was over, and " silence reigned 
along the shore that had so long resounded with the world's 
debate." 

Results of the Crusades. — The Crusades kept all Europe in a 
tumult for two centuries, and directly and indirectly cost Christen- 
dom several milhons of lives (from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 accord- 
ing to different estimates), besides incalculable expenditures in 
treasure and suffering. They were, moreover, attended by all the 
disorder, license, and crime with which war is always accompa- 
nied. 

On the other hand, the Holy Wars were productive indirectly of 
so much and lasting good that they form a most important factor 
in the history of the progress of civilization. To show this to be 
so, we will speak briefly of their influence upon the Church, and 
upon the political, the social, the intellectual, and the material 
progress and development of the European nations. 

The Crusades contributed to increase the wealth of the Church 
and the power of the Papacy. Thus the prominent part which the 
Popes took in the enterprises naturally fostered their authority and 
influence, by placing in their hands, as it were, the armies and 
resources of Christendom, and accustoming the people to look to 
them as guides and leaders. As to the wealth of the churches and 
monasteries, this was augmented enormously by the sale to them, 
often for a mere fraction of their actual value, of the estates of 
those preparing for the expeditions, or by the out and out gift of 
the lands of such in return for prayers and pious benedictions. 
Again, thousands of the crusaders, returning broken in spirits and 
in health, sought an asylum in cloistral retreats, and endowed the 
establishments that they entered with all their worldly goods. Be- 
sides all this, the stream of the ordinary gifts of piety was swollen 
by the extraordinary fervor of religious enthusiasm which charac- 
terized the period into enormous proportions. In all these ways, 



450 - CLOSE OF THE CRUSADES. 

the power of the Papacy and the wealth of the Church were 
vastly augmented.^ 

As to the political effects of the Crusades, they helped to break 
down the power of the feudal aristocracy, and to give prominence 
to the kings and the people. Many of the nobles who set out on 
the expeditions never returned, and their estates, through failure 
of heirs, escheated to the Crown ; while many more wasted their 
fortunes in meeting the expenses of their undertaking. At the 
same time, the cities also gained many political advantages at the 
expense of the crusading barons and princes. Ready money in 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was largely in the hands of the 
burgher class, and in return for the contributions and loans they 
made to their overlords, or suzerains, they received charters con- 
ferring special and valuable privileges. And under this head of 
the political effects of the Crusades, it should be noticed that, in 
checking the advance of the Turks, they postponed the fall of 
Constantinople for three centuries or more. This gave the young 
Christian civilization of Germany time to acquire sufficient strength 
to roll back the returning tide of Mohammedan invasion when it 
broke upon Europe in the fifteenth century. 

The effects of the Crusades upon the social life of the Western 
nations were marked and important. Giving opportunity for 
romantic adventure, they were one of the principal fostering influ- 
ences of Chivalry ; while by bringing the rude peoples of the West 
in contact with the culture of the East, they exerted upon them a 
general refining influence. 

The influence of the Crusades upon the intellectual development 
of Europe can hardly be overestimated. Above all, they liberal- 
ized the minds of the crusaders. Furthermore, the knowledge of 
the science and learning of the East gained by the crusaders 

1 It should be said in regard to this increase in the riches of the Church and 
the authority of the Popes, that while Catholics count this as one of the good 
results of the Holy Wars, Protestants consider it as one of the evils of the 
movements, urging that it led to papal tyranny and to the corruption of 
monastic morals. 



RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES. 451 

through their expeditions, greatly stimulated the Latin intellect, 
and helped to awaken in Western Europe that mental activity 
which resulted finally in the great intellectual outburst known 
as the Revival of Learning (see p. 471). 

Among the effects of the Holy Wars upon the material develop- 
ment of Europe must be mentioned the spur they gave to com- 
mercial enterprise, especially to the trade and commerce of the 
Italian cities. During this period, Venice, Pisa, and Genoa ac- 
quired great wealth and reputation through the fostering of their 
trade by the needs of the crusaders, and the opening up of the 
East. The Mediterranean was whitened with the sails of their 
transport ships, which were constantly plying between the various 
ports of Europe and the towns of the Syrian coast. Moreover, 
various arts, manufactures, and inventions before unknown in 
Europe, were introduced from Asia. This enrichment of the civil- 
ization of the West with the " spoils of the East " we may allow 
to be emblemized by the famous bronze horses that the crusaders 
carried off from Constantinople, and set up before St. Mark's 
Cathedral in Venice. 

Lastly, the incentive given to geographical discovery led various 
travellers, such as the celebrated Italian, Marco Polo, and the 
scarcely less noted Englishman, Sir John Mandeville, to explore 
the most remote countries of Asia. Even that spirit of maritime 
enterprise and adventure which rendered illustrious the fifteenth 
century, inspiring the voyages of Columbus, Vasco de Gama, and 
Magellan, may be traced back to that lively interest in geographi- 
cal matters awakened by the expeditions of the crusaders. 



^ 



452 SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY. 



CHAPTER XLIIL 

SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY; DECLINE OF ITS TEMPORAL 

POWER. 

Introductory. — In a previous chapter we traced the gradual rise 
of the spiritual and temporal power of the Papacy, and stated the 
several theories respecting its relation to secular rulers. In the 
present chapter, we purpose to follow its increasing power to the 
culmination of its authority in the thirteenth century, and then to 
speak of some of the circumstances that caused, or that marked, 
the decline of its temporal power. 

Pope Greg^ory VII. (Hildebrand) and his Reforms. — One of 
the greatest promoters of the papal fortunes was Pope Gregory 
VII., perhaps better known as Hildebrand, the most noteworthy 
character after Charlemagne that the Middle Ages produced. 
In the year 1049 ^^ ^^^ called from the cloisters of a French 
monastery to Rome, there to become the maker and adviser of 
Popes, and finally to be himself elevated to the pontifical throne, 
which he held from 1073 to 1080. Being a man of great force 
of character and magnificent breadth of view, he did much 
towards establishing the universal spiritual and temporal sovereignty 
of the Holy See. 

In carrying out his purpose of exalting the Papal See above all 
prelates and princes, Gregory, as 'soon as he became Pope, set 
about two important reforms, — the enforcement of celibacy among 
the secular clergy, and the suppression of simony. By the first 
measure he aimed to effect not only a much-needed moral reform, 
but, by separating the clergy from all the attachments of home 
and neighborhood and country, to render them more devoted to 
the interests of the Church. 



POPE GREGORY VIL 453 

The second reform, the correction of simony, had for its ulti- 
mate object the freeing of the lands and offices of the Church 
from the control of temporal lords and princes, and the bringing 
of them more completely into the hands of the Roman bishop. 

The evil of simony ^ had grown up in the Church in the follow- 
ing way: As the feudal system took, possession of European soci- 
ety, the Church, like individuals and cities, assumed feudal relations. 
Thus, as we have already seen, abbots and bishops, as the heads of 
monasteries and churches, for the sake of protection, became the 
vassals of powerful barons or princes. When once a prelate had 
rendered homage for his estates, or temporalities, as they were 
called, these became thenceforth a permanent fief of the overlord, 
and upon the death of the holder could be re-bestowed by the lord 
upon whomsoever he chose. These Church estates and positions 
that thus came within the gift of the temporal princes were often 
given to unworthy court favorites, or sold to the highest bidder. 
So long as a considerable portion of the clergy sustained this vas- 
sal relation to the feudal lords, the Papal See could not hope to 
exercise any great authority over them. 

To remedy the evil, Gregory issued a decree that no ecclesias- 
tic should do homage to a temporal lord, but that he should 
receive the ring and staff, the symbols of investiture, from the 
hands of the Pope alone. Any one who should dare disobey the 
decree was threatened with the anathemas of the Church. 

Such was the bold measure by which Gregory proposed to wrest 
out of the hands of the feudal lords and princes the vast patron- 
age and immense revenues resulting from the relation they had 
gradually come to sustain to a large portion of the lands and riches 
of the Church. To realize the magnitude of the proposed revolu- 
tion, we must bear in mind that the Church at this time was in 
possession of probably one-half of the lands of Europe. 

Excommunications and Interdicts. — The principal instru- 

1 By simony is meant the purchase of an office in the Church, the name of 
the offence coming from Simon Magus, who offered Paul money for the gift of 
curing diseases. 



454 SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY. 

ments relied upon by Gregory for the carrying out of his re- 
forms were Excommunication and Interdict. 

The first was directed against individuals. The person excom- 
municated was cut off from all relations with his fellow-men. If a 
king, his subjects were released from their oath of allegiance. 
Any one providing the accursed with food or shelter incurred the 
wrath of the Church. The Interdict was directed against a city, 
province, or kingdom. Throughout the region under this ban, the 
churches were closed ; no bell could be rung, no marriage cele- 
brated, no burial ceremony performed. The rites of baptism and 
extreme unction alone could be administered. These spiritual 
punishments rarely failed during the eleventh and twelfth centu- 
ries in bringing the most contumacious offender to a speedy and 
abject confession. This will appear in the following paragraph. 

Gregory VII. and Henry IV. of Germany. — The decree of 
Gregory respecting the relation of the clergy to the feudal lords 
created a perfect storm of opposition, not only among the tem- 
poral princes and sovereigns of Europe, but also among the clergy 
themselves. The dispute thus begun distracted Europe for cen- 
turies. 

Gregory experienced the most formidable opposition to his 
reforms in Germany. The Emperor Henry IV. refused to recog- 
nize his decree, and even called a council of the clergy of Ger- 
many and deposed him. Gregory in turn gathered a council at 
Rome, and deposed and excommunicated the emperor. This 
encouraged a revolt on the part of some of Henry's discontented 
subjects. He was shunned as a man accursed by heaven. His 
authority seemed to have slipped entirely out of his hands, and 
his kingdom was on the point of going to pieces. In this wretched 
state of his affairs there was but one thing for him to do, — to go 
to Gregory, and humbly sue for pardon and re -instate ment in the 
favor of the Church. 

Henry sought the Pontiff at Canossa among the Apennines. 
But Gregory refused to admit the penitent to his presence. It 
was winter, and for three successive days the king, clothed in 



HENRY IV. OF GERMANY. 455 

sackcloth, stood with bare feet in the snow of the court-yard of the 
palace, waiting for permission to kneel at the feet of the Pontiff 
and to receive forgiveness. On the fourth day the penitent king 
was admitted to the presence of Gregory, who re-instated him in 
favor — to the extent of removing the sentence of excommunica- 
tion (1077). 

Henry afterwards avenged his humiliation. He raised an army, 
invaded Italy, and drove Gregory into exile at Salerno, where he 
died. His last words were, '' I have loved justice and hated in- 
iquity, and therefore I die in exile " (1085). 

But the quarrel did not end here. It was taken up by the suc- 
cessors of Gregory, and Henry was again excommunicated. After 
maintaining a long struggle with the power of the Church, and 
with his own sons, who were incited to rebel against him, he at 
last died of a broken heart (tio6). 

The Popes and the Hohenstaufen Emperors. — In the twelfth 
century began the long and fierce contention — lasting more than 
a hundred years — between the Papal See and the emperors of 
the proud House of Hohenstaufen (see p. 504). It was simply 
the continuation and culmination of the struggle begun long before 
to decide which should be supreme, the "world-priest" or the 
"world-king." The outcome was the final triumph of the Roman 
bishops and the utter ruin of the Hohenstaufen. 

The Papacy at its Height. — The authority of the Popes was 
at its height during the thirteenth century. The beginning of this 
period of papal splendor is marked by the accession to the pon- 
tifical throne of Innocent III. (i 198-12 16), the greatest of the 
Popes after Gregory VII. Under him was very nearly made good 
the papal claim that all earthly sovereigns were merely vassals of 
the Roman Pontiff. Almost all the kings and princes of Europe 
swore fealty to him as their overlord. " Rome was once more the 
mistress of the world." 

Pope Innocent III. and Philip Augustus of France. — One of 
Innocent's most signal triumphs in his contest with the kings of 
Europe was gained over PhiHp Augustus (i 180-1223) of France. 



456 SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY. 

That king having put away his wife, Innocent commanded him to 
take her back, and forced him to submission by means of an 
interdict. "This submission of such a prince/' says Hallam, "not 
feebly superstitious Hke his predecessor Robert, nor vexed with 
seditions, Hke the Emperor Henry IV., but brave, firm, and 
victorious, is perhaps the proudest trophy in the scutcheon of 
Rome." 

Pope Innocent III. and King John of England. — Innocent's 
quarrel with King John (1199-1216) of England will afford 
another illustration of the power of the Popes. The See of Can- 
terbury falling vacant, John ordered the monks who had the right 
of election to give the place to a favorite of his. They obeyed ; 
but the Pope immediately declared the election void, and caused 
the vacancy to be filled with one of his own friends, Stephen 
Langton. John declared that the Pope's archbishop should never 
enter England as primate, and proceeded to confiscate the estates 
of the See. Innocent III. now laid all England under an interdict, 
excommunicated John, and incited the French king, Philip Augus- 
tus, to undertake a crusade against the contumacious rebel. 

The outcome of the matter was that John, like the German 
Emperor before him, was compelled to yield to the power of the 
Church. He gave back the lands he had confiscated, acknowl- 
edged Langton to be the rightful primate of England, and even 
went so far as to give England to the Pope as a perpetual fief. 
In token of his vassalage he agreed to pay to the Papal See the 
annual sum of 1000 marks. This tribute money was actually 
paid, though with very great irregularity, until the seventeenth 
year of the reign of Edward I. (1289). 

The Mendicants, or Begging Friars. — The authority of the 
immediate successors of Innocent III. was powerfully supported 
by the monastic orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans, 
established early in the thirteenth century. They were named 
after their respective founders, St. Dominic (11 70-1221) and St. 
Francis (1182-1226). The principles on which these fraternities 
were established were very different from those which had shaped 



REMOVAL OF THE PAPAL SEAT. 457 

all previous monastic institutions. Until now the monk had sought 
cloistral solitude in order to escape from the world, and through 
penance and prayer and contemplation to work out his own salva- 
tion. In the new orders, the monk was to give himself wholly to 
the work of securing the salvation of others. 

Again, the orders were also as oi^ders to renounce all earthly 
possessions, and, " espousing Poverty as a bride," to rely entirely 
for support upon the alms of the pious. Hitherto, while the indi- 
vidual members of a monastic order must affect extreme poverty, 
the house or fraternity might possess any amount of communal 
wealth. 

The new fraternities 'grew and spread with marvellous rapidity, 
and in less than a generation they quite overshadowed all of the 
old monastic orders of the Church. The Popes conferred many 
and special privileges upon them, and they in turn became the 
staunchest friends and supporters of the Roman See. They were 
to the Papacy of the thirteenth century what the later order of 
the Jesuits was to the Roman Church of the seventeenth (see 
p. 528). 

Removal of the Papal Seat to Avig^non (1309). — Having 
now noticed some of the most prominent circumstances and inci- 
dents that marked the gradual advance of the bishops of Rome 
to almost universal political and ecclesiastical sovereignty, we 
shall next direct attention to some of the chief events that marked 
the decline of their temporal power, and prepared the way for the 
rejection, at a later date, by a large part of Christendom, of their 
spiritual authority. 

One of the severest blows given both the temporal and the spir- 
itual authority of the Popes was the removal, in 1309, through the 
influence of the French king, Philip the Fair, of the papal chair 
from Rome to Avignon, in Provence, near the frontier of France. 
Here it remained for a space of about seventy years, an era known 
in Church history as the Babylonian Captivity. While it was es- 
tablished here, all the Popes were French, and of course all their 
policies were shaped and controlled by the French kings. " In 



458 SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY. 

that city," says Stille, " the Papacy ceased, in the eyes of a very 
large part of Christendom, to possess that sacred cosmopoHtan 
character which no doubt had had much to do with the veneration 
and respect with which the Cathohc authority had been regarded." 

The Great Schism (1378). — The discontent awakened among 
the Italians by the situation of the papal court at length led to an 
open rupture between them and the French party. In 1378 the 
opposing factions each elected a Pope, and thus there were two 
heads of the Church, one at Avignon and the other at Rome. 

The spectacle of two rival Popes, each claiming to be the right- 
ful successor of St. Peter and the sole infallible head of the 
Church, very naturally led men to question the claims and infalli- 
bility of both. It gave the reverence which the world had so gen- 
erally held for the Roman See a rude shock, and one from which 
it never recovered. 

The Church Councils of Pisa and Constance. — Finally, in 1409, 
a general council of the Church assembled at Pisa, for the purpose 
of composing the shameful quarrel. This council deposed both 
Popes, and elected Alexander V. as the supreme head of the 
Church. But matters instead of being mended hereby were only 
made worse ; for neither of the deposed pontiffs would lay down 
his authority in obedience to the demands of the council, and 
consequently there were now three Popes instead of two. 

In 14 14 another council was called, at Constance, for the settle- 
ment of the growing dispute. Two of the claimants were deposed, 
and one resigned. A new Pope was then elected, — Pope Martin 
V. In his person the Catholic world was again united under a 
single spiritual head. The schism was outwardly healed, but the 
wound had been too deep not to leave permanent marks upon the 
Church. 

The Revolt of the Temporal Princes. — Taking advantage of 
the declining authority of the Papal See, the temporal rulers in 
France, Germany, and England successively revolted, and freed 
themselves from the authority of the Papacy as touching political 
or governmental affairs. But it must be borne in mind that the 



REVOLT OF THE TEMPORAL PRLNCES. 459 

princes or governments that at this time repudiated the temporal 
authority of the Papal See, did not think of challenging the claims 
of the Popes to recognition as the supreme head of the Church, 
and the rightful arbiters in all spiritual matters. At the very time 
that they were striving to emancipate themselves from papal con- 
trol in temporal matters, they were lending the Church all their 
strength to punish heresy and schism. Thus the Albigenses ^ in 
Southern France, the Lollards ^ in England, and the Hussites ^ in 
Bohemia, were extirpated or punished by the civil authorities, act- 
ing either in accordance with the then universal idea of how heresy 
should be dealt with, or in obedience to the commands of the 
Roman See. 



1 See p. 493, ^ See p. 491. ^ See p. 506 




460 CONQUESTS OF THE TURANIAN TRIBES. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

CONQUESTS OF THE TURANIAN TRIBES. 

The Huns and the Hungarians. — The Huns, of whom we have 
aheady told, were the first Turanians that during historic times 
pushed their way in among the peoples of Europe (see p. 345 ) . 

The next Turanian invaders of Europe that we need here notice 
were the Magyars, or Hungarians, another branch of the Hunnic 
race, who in the ninth century of our era succeeded in thrusting 
themselves far into the continent, and estabhshing there the impor- 
tant Kingdom of Hungary. These people, in marked contrast to 
almost every other tribe of Turanian origin, adopted the manners, 
customs, and religion of the peoples about them — became, in a 
word, thoroughly Europeanized, and for a long time were the main 
defence of Christian Europe against the Turkish tribes of the same 
race that followed closely in their footsteps. 

The Seljukian Turks. — The Seljukian Turks, so called from 
the name of one of their chiefs, are the next Tartar people that 
thrust themselves prominently upon our notice. It was the cap- 
ture of the holy places in Palestine by this intolerant race, and 
their threatening advance towards the Bosporus, that alarmed the 
Christian nations of Europe, and led to the First Crusade. 

The blows dealt the empire of the Seljuks by the crusaders, and 
disputes respecting the succession, caused the once formidable 
sovereignty to crumble to pieces, only, however, to be replaced by 
others of equally rapid growth, destined to as quick a decay. 

The Mongols, or Moguls. — While the power of the Seljukian 
Turks was declining in Western Asia, the Mongols, or Moguls, a 
fierce and utterly untamed Tartar tribe that first issued from the 
easternmost part of Chinese Tartary, were building up a new 
dynasty among the various tribes of the central portion of the con- 



THE MONGOLS. 461 

tinent. In the year 1 156 was born their greatest chieftain^ Temujin, 
afterwards named Genghis Khan, or "Universal Sovereign," the 
most terrible scourge that ever afflicted the human race. At the 
head of vast armies, made up of numerous Turanian hordes, he 
traversed with sword and torch a great part of Asia. It is estimated 
that his enormous empire was built up at the cost of fifty thousand 
cities and towns and five millions of lives, — a greater waste, proba- 
bly, than resulted from all the Crusades. 

The successors of Genghis Khan still farther enlarged and 
strengthened the monarchy, so that it came to embrace, besides 
the best part of Asia, a considerable portion of Europe as well. 
At length the immoderately extended empire fell into disorder, 
and became broken into many petty states. It was restored by 
Tamerlane, or Timour the Lame (born about 1336), a descendant 
of Genghis Khan. With his wild Mongolian hordes he traversed 
anew almost all the countries that had been desolated by the san- 
guinary marches of his predecessors. The route of the barbarians 
was everywhere marked by ruined fields and burned villages. 

Asia has never recovered from the terrible devastation of the 
Mongol conquerors. Many districts, swarming with life, were en- 
tirely swept of their population by these destroyers of the race, 
and have remained to this day desolate as the tomb. 

The immense empire of Tamerlane crumbled to pieces after his 
death. One of its fragments had a remarkable history. This was 
the dynasty established in India, which became known as the 
Kingdom of the Great Moguls. This Mongol state lasted upwards 
of 300 years, — until destroyed by the English in the present 
century. The magnificence of the court of the Great Moguls at 
Delhi and Agra is one of the most splendid traditions of the East. 

The Ottoman Empire. 

Founding of the Empire. — The latest, most permanent, and 
most important of the Tartar sovereignties was estabhshed by the 
Ottoman Turks, who were an offshoot of the Seljukians. Gradually 



462 CONQUESTS OF THE TURANIAN TRIBES. 

this martial race seized province after province of the Asiatic pos- 
sessions of the Byzantine emperors. Through the quarrels that 
were constantly distracting Constantinople, they at last gained 
a foothold in Europe (1353). During the reign of Amurath I. 
(136 0-1389), a large part of the country known as Turkey in 
Europe fell into their hands. 

Conquests of Bajazet (1389-1403). — Amurath was followed by 
his son Bajazet who, by the rapid advance of his arms, spread the 
greatest alarm throughout Western Europe. The warriors of Hun- 
gary, Germany, and France united their armies to arrest his prog- 
ress ; but their combined forces, numbering 100,000 men, were 
cut to pieces by the sabres of the Turks on the fatal field of Nicop- 
olis, in Bulgaria (1396). Bajazet now vowed that he would 
stable his horse in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, and there 
seemed no power in Christendom to prevent the sacrilege. 

Before proceeding to fulfil his threat, however, Bajazet turned 
back to capture Constantinople, which he believed in the present 
despondent state of its inhabitants would make little or no resist- 
ance. Now it happened that just at this time Tamerlane was lead- 
ing the Mongols on their career of conquest. He directed them 
against the Turks in Asia Minor, and Bajazet was forced to raise 
the siege of Constantinople, and hasten across the Bosporus, to 
check the advance in his dominions of these new enemies. The 
Turks and Mongols met upon the plains of Angora, where the 
former suffered a disastrous defeat (1402). The battle of Angora 
checked for a time the conquests of the Ottomans, and saved 
Constantinople to the Christian world for another period of fifty 
years. 

The Capture of Constantinople (1453). — The Ottomans grad- 
ually recovered from the blow they had received at Angora. In 
the year 142 1 they made another attempt upon Constantinople, 
but were unsuccessful. Finally, in the year 1453, Mohammed II., 
the Great, sultan of the Ottomans, laid siege to the capital, with 
an army of over 200,000 men. After a short investment, the 
place was taken by storm. The Cross, which since the time of 



CHECK TO THE OTTOMAN ARMS. 463 

Constantine the Great had surmounted the dome of St. Sophia, 
was replaced by the Crescent, which remains to this day. 

Check to the Ottoman Arms. — The consternation which the 
fall of Byzantium created throughout Christendom was like the 
dismay which filled the world upon the downfall of Rome in 
the fifth century. All Europe now lay open to the Moslem bar- 
barians, and there seemed nothing to prevent their marching to 
the Atlantic. But the warriors of Hungary made a valiant stand 
against the invaders, and succeeded in checking their advance 
upon the continent, while the Knights of St. John (see p. 443), 
now established in the island of Rhodes, held them in restraint in 
the Mediterranean. Mohammed II. did succeed in planting the 
Crescent upon the shores of Italy — capturing and holding for a 
year the city of Otranto, in Calabria ; but by the time of the death 
of that energetic prince, the conquering energy of the Ottomans 
seems to have nearly spent itself, and the limits of their empire 
were not afterwards materially enlarged. 

The Turks have ever remained quite insensible to the influences 
of European civilization, and their government has been a perfect 
bhght and curse to the countries subjected to their rule. They 
have always been looked upon as intruders in Europe, and their 
presence there has led to several of the most sanguinary wars of 
modern times. Gradually they are being pushed out from their 
European possessions, and the time is probably not very far distant 
when they will be driven back across the Bosporus, as their 
Moorish brethren were expelled long ago from the opposite corner 
of the continent by the Christian chivalry of Spain. 



464 GROWTH OF THE TOWNS. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

GROWTH OF THE TOWNS: THE FfALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS. 

Relation of the Cities to the Feudal Lords. — When Feudalism 
took possession of Europe, the cities became a part of the system. 
Each town formed a part of the fief in which it happened to be 
situated, and was subject to all the incidents of feudal ownership. 
It owed allegiance to its lord, must pay to him feudal tribute, and 
aid him in his war enterprises. As the cities, through their manu- 
factures and trade, were the most wealthy members of the Feudal 
System, the lords naturally looked to them for money when in 
need. Their exactions at last became unendurable, and a long 
struggle broke out between them and the burghers, which resulted 
in what is known as the enfranchisement of the towns. 

It was in the eleventh century that this revolt of the cities against 
the feudal lords become general. During the course of this and 
the succeeding century, the greater number of the towns of the 
countries of Western Euroj^e either bought, or wrested by force of 
arms, charters from their lords or suzerains. The cities thus char- 
tered did not become independent of the feudal lords, but they 
acquired the right of managing, with more or less supervision, 
their own affairs, and were secured against arbitrary and oppres- 
sive taxation. This was a great gain ; and as, under the protection 
of their charters, they increased in wealth and population, very 
many of them grew at last strong enough to cast off all actual de- 
pendence upon lord or suzerain, and became in effect independent 
states — little commonwealths. Especially was this true in the 
case of the Italian cities, and in a less marked degree in that of 
the German towns. 

Rise of the Italian City-Republics. — The Italian cities were 
. the first to rise to power and importance. Several things conspired 



RISE OF THE ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS. 



465 



to secure their early and rapid development, but the main cause 
of their prosperity was their trade with the East, and the enormous 
impulse given to this commerce by the Crusades. 

With wealth came power, and all the chief ItaUan cities became 




A MEDIAEVAL SIEGE, SHOWING BALLISTAE, ETC. (By Alphonse de Neuville.) 

distinct, self-governing states, with just a nominal dependence upon 
the pope or the emperor. Towards the close of the thirteenth 
century. Northern and Central Italy was divided among about two 
hundred contentious little city-republics. Italy had become another 
Greece. 



466 



ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS. 



The Establishment of Tyrannies. — Just what happened among 
the contending republics of Greece took place in the case of the 
quarrelling city-commonwealths of Italy. Their republican con- 
stitutions were overthrown, and the supreme power fell into the 
hands of an ambitious aristocracy, or was seized by some bold 
usurper, who often succeeded in making the government heredi- 
tary in his family. Before the close of the fourteenth century 
almost all the republics of the peninsula had become converted 
into exclusive oligarchies or hereditary principalities. 

We shall now relate some circumstances, for the most part of a 
commercial character, which concern some of the most renowned 
of the Italian city-states. 

Venice. — Venice, the most celebrated of the Italian republics, 
had its beginnings in the fifth century, in the rude huts of some 

refugees who fled 



out into the marsh- 
es of the Adriatic 
to escape the fury 
of the Huns of 
Attila(seep.346). 
Conquests and 
negotiations grad- 
ually extended the 
possessions of the 
island-city until 
she came to con- 
trol the coasts and 
waters of the East- 




PALACE OF THE DOGES. (From a photograph.) 



ern Mediterranean in much the same way that Carthage had mas- 
tery of the Western Mediterranean at the time of the First Punic 
War. Even before the Crusades her trade with the East was 
very extensive, and by those expeditions was expanded into enor- 
mous proportions. 

Venice was at the height of her power during the thirteenth, 
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Her supremacy on the sea 



GENOA . — FL ORENCE. 467 

was celebrated each year by the briUiant ceremony of " Wedding 
the Adriatic," by the dropping of a ring into the sea. 

The dechne of Venice dates from the fifteenth century. The 
conquests of the Turks during that century deprived her of much 
of the territory she held east of the Adriatic, and finally the voyage 
of Vasco da Gama round the Cape of Good Hope (1497-8), 
showing a new path to India, gave a death-blow to her com- 
merce. From this time forward, the trade of Europe with the 
East was to be conducted from the Atlantic ports of the continent 
instead of from those in the Mediterranean. 

Genoa. — Genoa, on the western coast of Italy, was the most 
formidable commercial rival of Venice. The period of her great- 
est prosperity dates from the recapture of Constantinople from the 
Latins by the Greeks in 1261 ; for the Genoese had assisted the 
Greek princes in the recovery of their throne, and as a reward 
were shown commercial favors by the Greek emperors. 

The jealousy with which the Venetians regarded the prosperity 
of the Genoese led to oft-renewed war between the two rival repub- 
lics. For nearly two centuries their hostile fleets contended, as 
did the navies of Rome and Carthage during the First Punic War, 
for the supremacy of the sea. 

The merchants of Genoa, like those of Venice, reaped a rich 
harvest during the Crusades. Their prosperity was brought to an 
end by the irruption of the Mongols and Turks, and the capture of 
Constantinople by the latter in 1453. The Genoese traders were 
now driven from the Black Sea, and their traffic with Eastern Asia 
was completely broken up ; for the Venetians had control of the 
ports of Egypt and Syria and the southern routes to India and the 
countries beyond — that is, the routes by way of the Euphrates 
and the Red Sea. 

Florence. — Florence, although shut out, by her inland location 
upon the Arno, from engaging in those naval enterprises that con- 
ferred wealth and importance upon the coast cities of Venice and 
Genoa, became, notwithstanding, through the skill, industry, enter- 
prise, and genius of her citizens, the great manufacturing, financial, 



468 



ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS. 



literary, and art centre of the Middle Ages. The list of her illus- 
trious citizens, of her poets, statesmen, historians, architects, sculp- 
tors, and painters, is more extended than that of any other city 
of mediaeval times ; and indeed, as respects the number of her 
great men, Florence is perhaps unrivalled by any city, excepting 
Athens, of the ancient or the modern world.^ 

The Hanseatic League. — From speaking of the Italian city- 
republics, we must now turn to say a word respecting the free cities 
of Germany, in which country, next after Italy, the mediaeval munic- 
ipalities had their most perfect development, and acquired their 
greatest power and influence. 




ROBBER KNIGHTS. 

When, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the towns of North- 
ern Europe began to extend their commercial connections, the 
greatest drawback to their trade was the general insecurity and 
disorder that everywhere prevailed. The trader who entrusted his 
goods designed for the Italian market to the overland routes was 
in danger of losing them at the hands of the robber nobles, who 

^ In her long roll of fame we find the names of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, 
Macchiavelli, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Amerigo Vespucci, 
and the Medici. 



THE MEDIEVAL CITIES. 469 

watched all the Hues of travel, and either robbed the merchant 
outright, or levied an iniquitous toll upon his goods. The plebeian 
tradesmen, in the eyes of these patrician barons, had no rights 
which they felt bound to respect. Nor was the way to Italy by 
the Baltic and the North Sea beset with less peril. Piratical crafts 
scoured those waters, and made booty of any luckless merchant- 
man they might overpower, or lure to wreck upon the dangerous 
shores. 

This state of things led some of the German cities, about the 
middle of the fourteenth century, to form, for the protection of 
their merchants, an alliance called the Hanseatic League. The 
confederation eventually embraced eighty-five of the principal 
towns of North Germany. In order to facihtate the trading opera- 
tions of its members, the League established in different parts of the 
world trading-posts and warehouses. The four most noted centres 
of the trade of the confederation were the cities of Bruges, Lon- 
don, Bergen, and Novgorod. The League thus became a vast 
monopoly, which endeavored to control, in the interests of its own 
members, the entire commerce of Northern Europe. 

Among other causes of the dismemberment of the association 
may be mentioned the maritime discoveries of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, which disarranged all the old routes of trade in the north of 
Europe as well as in the south ; the increased security which the 
formation of strong governments gave to the merchant class upon 
sea and land ; and the heavy expense incident to membership in 
the association, resulting from its ambitious projects. All these 
things combined resulted in the decline of the power and useful- 
ness of the League, and finally led to its formal dissolution about 
the middle of the seventeenth century. 

Influence of the Mediaeval Cities. — The chartered towns and 
free cities of the mediaeval era exerted a vast influence upon the 
commercial, social, artistic, and pohtical development of Europe. 

They were the centres of the industrial and commercial hfe of 
the Middle Ages, and laid the foundations of that vast system of 
international exchange and traffic which forms a characteristic 
feature of modern European civilization. 



470 ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS. 

Their influence upon the social and artistic Hfe of Europe can- 
not be overestimated. It was within the walls of the cities that 
the civilization uprooted by the Teutonic invaders first revived. 
With their growing wealth came not only power, but those other 
usual accompaniments of wealth, — culture and refinement. The 
Italian cities were the cradle and home of mediaeval art, science, 
and literature. 

Again, these cities were the birthplace of political Hberty, of 
representative government. It was the burghers, the inhabitants 
of the cities, that in England, in France, and in Germany finally 
grew into the Third Estate, or Commons, the controlling political 
class in all these countries. In a word, municipal freedom was the 
germ of national liberty. 




SCHOLASTICISM AND THE SCHOOLMEN. 471 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 

By the Revival of Learning, in the most general sense, is meant 
the intellectual awakening of Europe after the languor and depres- 
sion of the first mediaeval centuries. In a narrower sense, how- 
ever, the phrase is used to designate that wonderful renewal of 
interest in the old Greek and Latin authors which sprung up in 
Italy about the beginning of the fourteenth century. We shall use 
the expression in its most comprehensive sense, thus making the 
restoration of classical letters simply a part of the great Revival of 
Learning. 

Scholasticism and the Schoolmen. — One of Charlemagne's 
most fruitful labors was the establishment of schools, in connection 
with the cathedrals and monasteries, throughout his dominions. 
Within these schools there grew up in the course of time a form 
of philosophy called, from the place of its origin, Scholasticism, 
while its expounders were known as Schoolmen. This philosophy 
was a fusion of Christianity and Aristotelian logic. It might be 
defined as being, in its later stages, an effort to reconcile revela- 
tion and reason, faith and philosophy. Viewed in this fight, it 
was not altogether unlike that theological philosophy of the present 
day whose aim is to harmonize the Bible with the facts of modern 
science. 

The greatest of the Schoolmen appeared in the thirteenth cen- 
tury. Among them were Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas 
Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. The most eminent of these was 
Thomas Aquinas (died 1274), who was called the "Angel of the 
Schools." He was the strongest champion of mediaeval orthodoxy. 
His remarkable work, entitled the Su7nma Theologica, outlines and 
defends the whole scheme of Roman Catholic theology. 



472 THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 

The Schoolmen often busied themselves with the most unprofit- 
able questions in metaphysics and theology, yet their discussions 
were not without good results. These debates sharpened the wits 
of men, created activity of thought and deftness in argument. 
The schools of the times became real mental gymnasia, in which 
the young awakening mind of Europe received its first training 
and gained its earliest strength. 

The Universities. — Closely related to the subject of Scholasti- 
cism is the history of the universities, which, springing up in the 
thirteenth century, became a powerful agency in the Revival of 
Learning. They were for the most part expansions of the old 
cathedral and abbey schools, their transformation being effected 
largely through the reputation of the Schoolmen, who drew such 
multitudes to their lectures that it became necessary to reorganize 
the schools on a broader basis. Popes and kings granted them 
charters which conferred special privileges upon their faculties 
and students, as, for instance, exemption from taxation and from 
the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. The celebrated University 
of Paris was the first founded, and that of Bologna was probably 
next in order. 

The usual course of study in the universities was divided into 
what was known as the trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium 
embraced Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric ; the quadrivium. Arith- 
metic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music. These constituted the 
seven liberal arts. Greek, Hebrew, and the physical sciences re- 
ceived but little attention. Medicine had not yet freed itself from 
the influence of magic and astrology, and alchemy had not yet 
given birth to chemistry. The Ptolemaic theory of the universe 
still held sway. However, in all these matters the European mind 
was making progress, was blindly groping its way towards the light. 

Influence of the Saracens. — The progress of the Christian 
scholars of Europe in the physical sciences was greatly accelerated 
by the Saracens, who, during the Dark Ages, were almost the sole 
repositories of the scientific knowledge of the world. A part of 
this they gathered for themselves, for the Arabian scholars were 



EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES. 473 

original investigators, but a larger share of it they borrowed from 
the Greeks. While the Western nations were too ignorant to 
know the value of the treasures of antiquity, the Saracens pre- 
served them by translating into Arabic the scientific works of 
Aristotle and other Greek authors ; and then, when Europe was 
prepared to appreciate these accumulations of the past, gave them 
back to her. This learning came into Europe in part through the 
channel of the Crusades, but more largely, and at an earlier date, 
through the Arabian schools in Spain. Two of the greatest 
scholars of the thirteenth century, or perhaps of all the mediaeval 
ages, Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus, owed very much of their 
scientific knowledge to the Arabians. 

Effects of the Crusades. — Having in a previous chapter dwelt 
on the effects of the Crusades upon the intellectual development 
of the European peoples (see p. 449) there is no need that we 
here do more than refer to the matter, in order that we may fix 
in mind the place of the Holy Wars among the agencies that con- 
spired to bring about the Revival of Learning. The stimulating, 
quickening, liberalizing tendency of these chivalric enterprises was 
one of the most potent forces concerned in the mental movement 
we are tracing. 

Rise of Modern Languages and Literatures. — Between the 
tenth and the fourteenth century the native tongues of Europe 
began to form literatures of their own. We have already spoken 
of the formation and gradual growth of these languages (see p. 
386). As soon as their forms became somewhat settled, then 
literature was possible, and all these speeches bud and blossom 
into song and romance. This formation of modern European 
languages and birth of native literatures, was one of the greatest 
gains in the interest of general intelligence ; for the Schoolmen 
used the Latin language, and their discussions and writings conse- 
quently influenced only a limited class ; while the native literatures 
addressed themselves to the masses, and thus stirred the universal 
mind and heart of Europe. 

The Revival of Classical Learning. — About the beginning of 



474 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 



the fourteenth century there sprung up in Italy a great enthusiasm 
for Greek and Latin hterature and art. This is what is generally 
known as the Italian Renaissance, or the New Birth. 

The Renaissance divides itself as follows : i . The revival of 
classical learning ; 2. The revival of classical art. It is with the first 
only, the intellectual and literary phase of the movement, that we 
are now concerned. This feature of the movement is called Hu- 
manism, and the promoters of it are known as Humanists} The 

real originator of the humanistic 
movement was Petrarch- (1304- 
1374). His love for the old 
Greek and Latin writers was a 
passion amounting to a worship. 
He often wrote love-letters to 
his favorite authors. In one to 
Homer he laments the lack of 
taste among his countrymen, and 
declares that there are not more 
than ten persons in all Italy who 
could appreciate the Iliad. Next 
to Petrarch stands Boccaccio 
(13 13-13 75), as the second of 
the Humanists. 

Just as the antiquarians of to-day search the mounds of Assyria 
for rehcs of the ancient civilizations of the East, so did the Human- 
ists ransack the libraries of the monasteries and cathedrals, and all 
the out-of-the-way places of Europe, for old manuscripts of the 
classic writers. The precious documents were found covered with 
mould in damp cellars, or loaded with dust in the attics of monas- 
teries. This late search for these remains of classical authors 
saved to the world hundreds of valuable manuscripts which, a little 




DANTE. 2 
(From Raphael's Disputation.) 



1 That is, students of the humanities, or poHte literature. 

2 The great Florentine poet, Dante (1265-1321), was the forerunner of 
Humanism, but was not, properly speaking, a Humanist. His Divine Comedy 
is the " Epic of Mediaevalism." 



CLASSICAL LEARNING, 475 

longer neglected, would have been forever lost. Libraries were 
founded in which the new treasures might be stored, and copies of 
the manuscripts were made and distributed among all who could 
appreciate them. It was at this time that the celebrated Vatican 
Library was established by Pope Nicholas V. (144 7-1455), one of 
the most generous promoters of the humanistic movement. 

This reviving interest in the literature of ancient Greece was 
vastly augmented by the disasters just now befalHng the Greek 
empire (see p. 462). From every part of the crumbling state 
scholars fled before the approach of the barbarians, and sought 
shelter in the West, especially in Italy, bringing with them many 
valuable manuscripts of the old Greek masters, who were almost 
unknown in Western Europe, and always an enthusiasm for Greek 
learning. There was now a repetition of what took place at Rome 
upon the conquest of Greece in the days of the Republic. Italy 
was conquered a second time by the genius of Greece. 

Before the close of the fifteenth century, the enthusiasm for 
classical authors had infected the countries beyond the Alps. The 
New Learning, as it was called, found a place in the colleges and 
universities of Germany, France, and England. Greek was added 
to Latin as one of the requirements in a liberal education, and from 
that day to this has maintained a prominent place in all our higher 
institutions of learning. In Northern Europe, however, the human- 
istic movement became blended with other tendencies. In Italy it 
had been an exclusive passion, a single devotion to classical litera- 
ture ; but here in the North there was added to this enthusiasm for 
Grseco-Roman letters an equal and indeed supremer interest in 
what we have called the Hebrew element in civilization (see p. 
368). Petrarch hung over the pages of Homer; Luther pores 
over the pages of the Bible. The Renaissance, in a word, becomes 
the Reformation ; the Humanist becomes the Reformer. 

Evil and Good Results of the Classical Revival. — There were 
some serious evils inherent in the classical revival. In Italy, espe- 
cially, where the humanistic spirit took most complete possession 
of society, it was "disastrous to both faith and morals." The 



476 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 



study of the old pagan writers produced the result predicted by 
the monks, — caused a revival of paganism. To be learned in 
Greek was to excite suspicion of heresy. With the New Learning 
came also those vices and immoralities that characterized the 
decline of classical civilization. Italy was corrupted by the new 
influences that flowed in upon her, just as Rome was corrupted by 
Grecian luxury and vice in the days of the failing republic. 

On the other hand, the benefits of the movement to European 
civilization were varied and positive. The classical revival gave to 
Europe, not only faultless literary models, but large stores of valua- 
ble knowledge. As Woolsey says, " The old civihzation contained 
treasures of permanent value which the world could not spare, 
which the world will never be able or wiUing to spare. These 
were taken up into the stream of Hfe, and proved true aids to the 
progress of a culture which is gathering in one the beauty and 
truth of all the ages." And to the same effect are the words of 
Symonds, who closes his appreciative review of the Italian Revival 
of Letters as follows : " Such is the Lampadephoria, or torch-race, 
of the nations. Greece stretches out her hand to Italy ; Italy con- 
signs the sacred fire to Northern Europe ; the people of the North 

pass on the flame to America, to India, 
and the Australasian Isles." 

Printing. — One of the most helpful 
agencies concerned in the Revival of 
^^^^^^ Learning, was the invention of printing 
^/ : '-Sful^wlB^B from movable blocks, or type, — the 
Ji i^v most important discovery, in the esti- 
H #ffl^ .-#!^^Wi iF mation of Hallam, recorded in the an- 
^^ nals of mankind. For this improvement 

JOHN GUTENBERG ^^ worM is probably indebted to John 

Gutenberg of Mentz (1438).-^ 
The new art would have been much restricted in its usefulness 
had it not been for the bringing to perfection about this time of 

^ Dutch writers maintain that the honor of the invention belongs to Costar 
of Haarlem. 




PRINTING, 477 

the art of making paper from linen rags. This article took the 
place of the costly parchment, and rendered it possible to place 
books within the reach of all classes. 

The first book printed from movable types was a Latin copy of 
the Bible, issued at Mentz, in Germany, between the years 1450 
and 1455. The art spread rapidly, and before the close of the 
fifteenth century presses were busy in every country of Europe, 
multiplying books with a rapidity undreamed of by the patient 
copyists of the cloister. 

It is needless to dwell upon the tremendous impulse which the 
new art gave, not only to the humanistic movement, but to the 
general intellectual progress of the European nations. Without it, 
the Revival of Learning must have languished, and the Reforma- 
tion could hardly have become a fact in history. Its instrument, 
the press, is fitly chosen as the symbol of the new era of intelligence 
and freedom which it ushered in. 



478 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. — FORMATION OF NATIONAL 
GOVERNMENTS AND LITERATURES. 

Introductory. — The most important movement that marked 
the latter part of the Middle Ages was the grouping, in several of 
the countries of Europe, of the petty feudal states and half- 
independent cities and towns into great nations with strong cen- 
tralized governments. This movement was accompanied by, or 
rather consisted in, the decline of Feudalism as a governmental 
system, the loss by the cities of their freedom, and the growth of 
the power of the kings. 

Many things contributed to this consolidation of peoples and 
governments, different circumstances favoring the movement in 
the several countries. In some countries, however, events were 
opposed to the centralizing tendency, and in these the Modern 
Age was reached without nationality having been found. But in 
England, in France, and in Spain circumstances all seemed to tend 
towards unity, and by the close of the fifteenth century there were 
established in these countries strong despotic monarchies. Yet 
even among those peoples where national governments did not 
appear, some progress was made towards unity through the forma- 
tion of national languages and literatures, and the development of 
common feelings, sentiments, and aspirations, so that these peoples 
were manifestly only awaiting the opportunities of a happier period 
for the maturing of their national life. 

This rise of Monarchy and decline of Feudahsm, this substitu- 
tion of strong centralized governments in place of the feeble, 
irregular, and conflicting authorities of the feudal nobles, was a 
very great gain to the cause of law and good order. It paved the 
way for modern progress and civilization. 



ENGLAND. 479 



I. England. 



General Statement. — In preceding chapters we have told of 
the origin of the EngUsh people, and traced their growth under 
Saxon, Danish, and Norman rulers (see pp. 375, 411, 433). We 
shall, in the present section, tell very briefly the story of their prog- 
ress under the Plantagenet kings, thus carrying on our narrative 
to the accession of the Tudors in 1485, from which event dates 
the beginning of the modern history of England. 

The era of the Plantagenets/ which covers three hundred and 
thirty-one years, was a most eventful one in English history. The 
chief political matters that we shall notice were the wresting of 
Magna Charta from King John, the formation of the House of 
Commons, the Conquest of Wales, the Wars with Scotland, the 
Hundred Years' War with France, and the Wars of the Roses. 

Magna Charta (12 15). — Magna Charta, \hQ "Great Charter," 
held sacred as the basis of English liberties, was an instrument 
which the English barons and clergy forced King John to grant, in 
which the ancient rights and privileges of the people were clearly 
defined and guaranteed. 

King John (1199-1216), the third of the Plantagenet line, was 
as tyrannical as he was unscrupulous and wicked. His course led 
to an open revolt of the barons, who were resolved upon the 
recovery of their ancient liberties. The tyrant was forced to bow 

1 The name Plantagenet came from the peculiar badge, a sprig of broom- 
plant {plante de genet), adopted by one of the early members of the House. 
Following is a table of the sovereigns of the family : — 



Henry II 1154-1189 

Richard 1 1189-I199 

John 1199-1216 

Henry III 1216-1272 

Edward 1 1272- 1307 

Edward II 1 307-1 327 

Edward III 1327-1377 

Richard II i377-i399 



HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 

Henry IV 1 399-1413 

Henry V 141 3-1422 

Henry VI 1422-1461 

HOUSE OF YORK. 

Edward IV 1461-1483 

Edward V 1483 

Richard III 1483-1485 



480 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

to the storm he had raised. He met his barons at Runnymede, 
a meadow on the Thames, and there affixed his seal to the instru- 
ment that had been prepared to receive it. 

Among the important articles of the paper were the following : 
No freeman should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, " save 
by legal judgment of his peers." No taxes (save several feudal 
aids specified) should be imposed " save by the Common Council 
of the realm." ^ 

Besides these articles, which form the foundation of the English 
Constitution, there were others abohshing numerous abuses and 
confirming various time-honored rights and privileges of the towns 
and of different classes of freemen. 

The Great Charter was often disregarded and broken by 
despotic sovereigns ; but the people always clung to it as the 
warrant and basis of their liberties, and again and again forced 
tyrannical kings to renew and confirm its provisions, and swear 
solemnly to observe all its articles. 

Considering the far-reaching consequences that resulted from 
the granting of Magna Charta, — the securing of constitutional 
liberty as an inheritance for the English-speaking race in all parts 
of the world, — it must always be considered the most important 
concession that a freedom-loving people ever wrung from a tyran- 
nical sovereign. 

Beginning of the House of Commons (1265). — The reign of 
Henry HI. (i 216-12 72), John's son and successor, witnessed the 
second important step taken in English constitutional freedom. 
This was the formation of the House of Commons, Parliament 
having up to this time consisted of a single House, made up of 
nobles and bishops. It was again the royal misbehavior that led 
to this great change in the form of the Enghsh national assembly. 

1 This article respecting taxation was suffered to fall into abeyance in 
the reign of John's successor, Henry III., and it was not until about one 
hundred years after the granting of Magna Charta that the great principle 
that the people should be taxed only through their representatives in Parlia- 
ment, became fully established. 



CONQUEST OF WALES. 481 

Henry had violated his oath to rule according to the Great 
Charter, and had become even more tyrannical than his father. 
The indignant barons rose in revolt, and Henry and his son being 
worsted in a great engagement, known as the battle of Lewes 
(1264), were made prisoners. 

Simon de Montfort, a Frenchman, whom Henry had given a 
prominent position in the government, now assumed control of 
affairs. He issued, in the king's name, writs of summons to the 
nobles and bishops to meet in Parliament ; and at the same time 
sent similar writs to the sheriffs of the different shires, directing 
them " to return two knights for the body of their county, with 
two citizens or burghers for every city and borough contained in 
it." This was the first time that plain untitled citizens or burghers 
had been called to take their place with the knights, lords, and 
bishops in the great council of the nation, to join in deliberations 
on the affairs of the realm.^ The Commons were naturally at first 
a weak and timorous body, quite overawed by the great lords, 
but were destined eventually to grow into the controlling branch 
of the British Parliament. 

Conquest of Wales . — For more than a thousand years the 
Celtic tribes of Wales maintained among their mountain fastnesses 
an ever-renewed struggle with the successive invaders and con- 
querors of England — with Roman, Saxon, and Norman. They 
never submitted their necks to the Roman yoke, but they were 
forced to acknowledge the overlordship of some of the Saxon and 
Norman kings. They were restless vassals, however, and were 
constantly withholding tribute and refusing homage. 

When Edward I. came to the Enghsh throne in 1272, Llew- 
ellyn, the overlord of the Welsh chiefs, with the title of Prince of 
Wales, refused to render homage to the new king. War followed. 
Llewellyn was slain, and the independence of his race forever 

1 At first the Commons could only take part in questions relating to taxa- 
tion, but gradually they acquired the right to share in all matters that might 
come before Parliament. 



482 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

extinguished (1282). The title of the Welsh chieftain has ever 
since been borne by the eldest son of the English sovereign. 

Wars with Scotland (1296-1328). — In 1285 the ancient 
Celtic line of Scottish chiefs became extinct. Thirteen claimants 
for the vacant throne immediately arose. Chief among these were 
Robert Bruce and John Balliol, distinguished noblemen of Norman 
descent, attached to the Scottish court. King Edward I. of Eng- 
land, who claimed suzerain rights over the Scottish realm, was 
asked to act as arbitrator, and decide to whom the crown should 
be given. He decided the question of the succession in favor of 
Balliol, who now took the crown of Scotland as the acknowledged 
vassal of the English sovereign. 

Edward's unjust demands on the Scottish king led him to cast 
off his feudal allegiance. In the war that followed, the Scots were 
defeated, and Scotland now fell back as a fief forfeited by treason, 
into the hands of Edward (1296). As a sign that the Scottish 
kingdom had come to an end, Edward carried off to London the 
royal regalia, and with this a large stone, known as the Stone of 
Scone, upon which the Scottish kings, from time out of memory, 
had been accustomed to be crowned. Legend declared that the 
relic was the very stone on which Jacob had slept at Bethel. 
The block was taken to Westminster Abbey, and there made to 
form the seal of a stately throne-chair, which to this day is used 
in the coronation ceremonies of the English sovereigns. It is 
said that the stone once bore this legend : — 

" Should fate not fail, where'er this stone be found, 
The Scot shall monarch of that realm be crowned," 

which prophecy was fulfilled when James VI. of Scotland became 
James I. of England.-^ 

1 *' Whether the prophecy was actually inscribed on the stone may ,be 
doubted, though this seems to be implied, and on the lower side is still A^i^mle 
a groove which may have contained it; but the fact that it was circulated and 
believed as early as the fourteenth century, is certain." — Dean Stanley's 
Memorials of Westminster Abbey. 



WAJ?S WITH SCOTLAND. 483 

The two countries were not long united. The Scotch people 
loved too well their ancient liberties to submit quietly to this ex- 
tinguishment of their national independence. Under the inspira- 
tion and lead of the famous Sir William Wallace, an outlaw knight, 
all the Lowlands were soon in determined revolt. It was chiefly 
from the peasantry that the patriot hero drew his followers. 
Wallace gained some successes, but at length was betrayed into 
Edward's hands. He was condemned to death as a traitor, and 
his head, garlanded with a crown of laurel, was exposed on Lon- 
don Bridge (1305). The romantic life of Wallace, his patriotic 
service, his heroic exploits, and his tragic death, at once lifted him 
to the place that he has ever since held, as the national hero of 
Scotland. 

The struggle in which Wallace had fallen, was soon renewed by 
the almost equally renowned hero Robert Bruce (grandson of the 
Robert Bruce mentioned on p. 482), who was the representative 
of the nobles, as Wallace had been of the common people. With 
Edward II. Bruce fought the great Battle of Bannockburn, near 
Stirling. Edward's army was almost annihilated (13 14). It was 
the most appalling disaster that had befallen the arms of the Eng- 
Hsh people since the memorable defeat of Harold at Hastings. 

The independence of Scotland really dates from the great vic- 
tory of Bannockburn, but the English were too proud to acknowl- 
edge it until fourteen years more of war. Finally, in the year 
1328, the young king Edward HI. gave up all claim to the Scot- 
tish crown, and Scotland with the hero Bruce as its king, took its 
place as an independent power among the nations of Europe. 

The independence gained by the Scotch at Bannockburn was 
maintained for nearly three centuries, — until 1603, — when the 
crowns of England and Scotland were peacefully united in the 
person of James Stuart VI. of Scotland. During the greater part 
of these three hundred years the two countries were very quar- 
relsome neighbors. 




484 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

The Hundred Years^ War (1336-1453). 

Causes of the War. — The long and wasteful war between Eng- 
land and France, known in history as the Hundred Years' War, 
was a most eventful one, and its effects upon both England and 
France so important and lasting as to entitle it to a prominent 
place in the records of the closing events of the Middle Ages. 
Freeman likens the contest to the Peloponnesian War in ancient 
Greece. 

The war with Scotland was one of the things that led up to this 
war. All through that struggle, France, as the jealous rival of 
England, was ever giving aid and encouragement to the Scotch 
rebels. Then the English lands in France, for which the English 
king did homage to the French king as overlord, were a source of 
constant dispute between the two countries. Furthermore, upon 
the death of Charles IV., the last of the Capetian line, Edward III. 
laid claim, through his mother, to the French crown, in much the 
same way that William of Normandy centuries before had laid 
claim to the crown of England. 

The Battle of Crecy (1346). — The first great combat of the 
long war was the memorable battle of Crecy. Edward had in- 
vaded France with an army of 30,000 men, made up largely of 
English bowmen, and had penetrated far into the country, ravaging 
as he went, when he finally halted, and faced the pursuing French 
army near the village of Crecy, where he inflicted upon it a most 
terrible defeat; 1200 knights, the flower of French chivalry, and 
30,000 foot-soldiers lay dead upon the field. 

The great battle of Crecy is memorable for several reasons, 
but chiefly because Feudalism and Chivalry there received their 
death-blow. The yeomanry of England there showed themselves 
superior to the chivalry of France. "The churl had struck down 
the noble ; the bondsman proved more than a match, in sheer 
hard fighting, for the knight. From the day of Cr^cy, Feudalism 
tottered slowly but surely to its grave." The battles of the world 
were hereafter, with few exceptions, to be fought and won, not by 



THE CAPTURE OF CALAIS. 



485 



But no 
a purer 



mail-clad knights with battle-axe and lance, but by common foot- 
soldiers with bow and gun. 

The Capture of Calais. — From the field of Crecy Edward led 
his array to the siege of Calais. At the end of a year's investment, 
the city fell into the hands of the English. The capture of this 
sea-port was a very important event for the English, as it gave 
them control of the commerce of the Channel, and afforded them 
a convenient landing-place for their expeditions of invasion into 
France. 

The Battle of Poitiers (1356). — The terrible scourge of the 
"Black Death," ^ which desolated all Europe about the middle of 
the fourteenth cen- 
tury, caused the con- 
tending nations for a 
time to forget their 
quarrel, 
sooner had 
atmosphere breathed 
upon the continent 
than the old struggle 
was renewed with 
fresh eagerness. 

Edward III. plan- 
ned a double inva- 
sion of France. He 
himself led an army through the already wasted provinces of the 
North, while the Black Prince with another army ravaged the fields 
of the South. As the Prince's army, numbering about 8000 men, 
loaded with booty, was making its way back to the coast, it 
found its path, near Poitiers, obstructed by a French army of 

1 The Black Death was so called on account of the black spots which cov- 
ered the body of the person attacked. It was a contagious fever, which, like 
the pestilence in the reign of Justinian, entered Europe from the East, and 
made terrible ravages during the years 1347-49. In Germany over 1,000,000 
persons fell victims to the plague, while in England, according to some authori- 




CHARGE OF FRENCH KNIGHTS AND FLIGHT OF 
ENGLISH ARROWS. 



486 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

50,000. A battle ensued which proved for the French a second 
Cr6cy. The arrows of the EngHsh bowmen drove them in fatal 
panic from the field, which was strewn with 11,000 of their dead. 

Battle of Agincourt (1415). — For half a century after the 
Peace ^ that followed the battle of Poitiers there was a lull in the 
war. But while Henry V. (1413-1422) was reigning in England, 
France was unfortunate in having an insane king, Charles VI. ; 
and Henry, taking advantage of the disorder into which the French 
kingdom naturally fell under these circumstances, invaded the 
country with a powerful army, defeated the French in the great 
battle of Agincourt (1415), and five years later concluded the 
Treaty of Troyes, in which, so discouraged had the French be- 
come, a large party agreed that the crown of France should be 
given to him upon the death of Charles. 

Joan of Arc. — But patriotism was not yet wholly extinct among 
the French people. There were many who regarded the conces- 
sions of the Treaty of Troyes as not only weak and shameful, but 
as unjust to the Dauphin Charles, who was thereby disinherited, 
and they accordingly refused to be bound by its provisions. Con- 
sequently, when the poor insane king died, the terms of the treaty 
were not carried out, and the war dragged on. The party that 
stood by their native prince, afterwards crowned as Charles VII., 
were at last reduced to most desperate straits. A great part of 
the northern section of the country was in the hands of the Eng- 
lish, who were holding in close siege the important city of Orleans. 

But the darkness was the deep gloom that precedes the dawn. 
A strange deliverer now appears, — the famous Joan of Arc, 
Maid of Orleans. This young peasant girl, with imagination all 

ties, one-half of the population was swept away. The pestilence was also 
especially severe in Florence, in Italy. Under the terror and excitement of 
the dreadful visitation, religious penitents, thinking to turn away the wrath of 
heaven by unusual penances, went about in procession, lacerating themselves 
with whips (hence they were csW&d. Jlage Hants). This religious frenzy had 
its most remarkable manifestation in Germany. 
1 The Treaty of Bretigny (1360). 



JOAN OF ARC. 487 

aflame from brooding over her country's wrongs and sufferings, 
seemed to see visions and hear voices, which bade her undertake 
the work of dehvering France. She was obedient unto the heav- 
enly vision. 

The warm, impulsive P'rench nation, ever quick in responding 
to appeals to the imagination, was aroused exactly as it was stirred 
by the voice of the preachers of the Crusades. Religious enthusi- 
asm now accomplished what patriotism alone could not do. 

Received by her countrymen as a messenger from heaven, the 
maiden kindled throughout the land a flame of enthusiasm that 
nothing could resist. Inspiring the dispirited French soldiers 
with new courage, she forced the English to raise the siege of 
Orleans (from which exploit she became known as the Maid of 
Orleans), and speedily brought about the coronation of Prince 
Charles at Reims (1429). Shortly afterward she fell into the 
hands of the English, and was condemned and burned as a heretic 
and witch. 

But the spirit of the Maid had already taken possession of the 
French nation. From this on, the war, though long continued, 
went steadily against the English. Little by little they were pushed 
back and off from the soil they had conquered, until, by the mid- 
dle of the fifteenth century, they were driven quite out of the 
country, retaining no foothold in the land save Calais (see p. 553). 

Thus ended the Hundred Years' War, in 1453, the very year 
which saw Constantinople fall before the Turks. 

Effects upon England of the War. — The most lasting and 
important effects upon England of the war were the enhancement 
of the power of the Lower House of Parliament, and the awaken- 
ing of a national spirit and feeling. The maintaining of the long 
and costly quarrel called for such heavy expenditures of men and 
money that the English kings were made more dependent than 
hitherto upon the representatives of the people, who were careful 
to make their grants of supplies conditional upon the correction 
of abuses or the confirming of their privileges. Thus the war 
served to make the Commons a power in the English government. 



488 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

Again, as the war was participated in by all classes alike, the 
great victories of Cr^cy, Poitiers, and Agincourt roused a national 
pride, which led to a closer union between the different elements 
of society. Normans and English were fused by the ardor of a 
common patriotic enthusiasm into a single people. The real 
national Ufe of England dates from this time. (For the effects 
of the war on France, see p. 494.) 

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). 

General Statement. — The Wars of the Roses is the name 
given to a long, shameful, and selfish contest between the adher- 
ents of the Houses of York and Lancaster, rival branches of the 
royal family of England. The strife, which was for place and 
power, was so named because the Yorkists adopted as their badge 
a white rose and the Lancastrians a red one. 

The battle of Bosworth Field (1485) marks the close of the 
war. In this fight King Richard IIL, the last of the House of 
York, was overthrown and slain by Henry Tudor, the Earl of Rich- 
mond, who was crowned on the field with the diadem which had 
fallen from the head of Richard, and saluted as King Henry VII., 
the first of the Tudors. 

The Effects of the War. — The most important result of the 
Wars of the Roses was the ruin of the baronage of England. One- 
half of the nobility was slain. Those that survived were ruined, 
their estates having been wasted or confiscated during the progress 
of the struggle. Not a single great house retained its old-time 
wealth and influence. 

The second result of the struggle sprung from the first. This 
was the great peril into which English liberty was cast by the ruin 
of the nobility. It will be recalled that it was the barons who 
forced the Great Charter from King John (see p. 479), and who 
kept him and his successors from reigning like absolute monarchs. 
Now that once proud and powerful baronage were ruined, and 
their confiscated estates had gone to increase the influence and 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 489 

patronage of the king. He being no longer in wholesome fear of 
Parliament, for the Commons were as yet weak and timid, did 
pretty much as he pleased, and became insufferably oppressive 
and tyrannical ; raising taxes, for instance, without the consent of 
Parliament, and imprisoning and executing persons without due 
process of law. For the hundred years following the Wars of the 
Roses the government of England was rather an absolute than a 
limited monarchy. Not until the final Revolution of the seven- 
teenth century (see Chap. LV.) did the people, by overturning the 
throne of the Stuarts, fully recover their lost liberties. 

Growth of the English Language and Literature. 

The Language. — From the Norman Conquest to the middle 
of the fourteenth century there were in use in England three lan- 
guages : Norman French was the speech of the conquerors and 
the medium of polite literature ; Old English was the tongue of 
the common people ; while Latin was the language of the laws and 
records, of the church services, and of the works of the learned. 

Modern English is the Old English worn and improved by 
use, and enriched by a large infusion of Norman-French words, 
with less important additions from the Latin and other languages. 
It took the place of the Norman- French in the courts of law 
about the middle of the fourteenth century. At this time the 
language was broken up into many dialects, and the expression 
"King's English" is supposed to have referred to the standard 
form employed in state documents and in use at court. 

Effect of the Norman Conquest on English Literature. — The 
blow that struck down King Harold and his brave thanes on 
the field of Hastings silenced for the space of about a century 
the voice of English literature. The tongue of the conquerors 
became the speech of the court, the nobility, and the clergy; 
while the language of the despised English was, like themselves, 
crowded out of every place of honor. But when, after a few 
generations, the down-trodden race began to re-assert itself, Eng- 



490 



GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 



lish literature emerged from its obscurity, and with an utterance 
somewhat changed — yet it is unmistakably the same voice — 
resumes its interrupted lesson and its broken song. 

Chaucer (i328?-i4oo). — Holding a position high above all 
other writers of early English is Geoffrey Chaucer. He is the 
first in time, and, after Shakespeare, perhaps the first in genius, 
.among the great poets of the English-speaking race. He is 

reverently called 
the " Father of 
English Poetry." 

Chaucer stands 
between two ages, 
the mediaeval and 
the modern. He 
felt not only the 
influences of the 
age of Feudalism 
which was passing 
away, but also 
those of the new 
age of learn- 
ing and freedom 
which was dawn- 
ing. It is because 
he reflects his sur- 
roundings so faith- 
fully in his writings, 
that these are so 
valuable as inter- 
preters of the period in which he lived. Chaucer's greatest work 
is his Canterbury Tales, wherein the poet represents himself as one 
of a company of story- telling pilgrims who have set out from Lon- 
don on a journey to the tomb of Thomas Becket, at Canterbury. 

"Wycliffe and the Reformation (i 324-1384). — Foremost among 
the reformers and religious writers of the period under review was 




STATUE OF WYCLIFFE. 
(From the Luther Monument at Worms.) 



FRANCE. 



491 



Wycliffe, "The Morning Star of the Reformation." He gave the 
EngHsh people the first translation of the entire Bible in their 
native tongue. There was no press at that time to multiply edi- 
tions of the book, but by means of manuscript copies it was widely 
circulated and read. Its influence was very great, and from its ap- 
pearance maybe dated the beginning of the Reformation in England. 
The followers of Wycliffe became known as " Lallards " (bab- 
blers), a term applied to them in derision. They grew to be very 
numerous, and threatened by their excesses and imprudent zeal 
the peace of the state. They were finally suppressed by force. 

2. France. 

Beginning of the French Kingdom. — The kingdom of France 
begins properly with the accession of the first of the Capetian 
rulers, late in the tenth century. The Merovingian and Carolin- 
gian kings were simply German princes reigning in Gaul. The 
Capetians held the throne for more than three centuries, when 
they were followed by the Valois kings. The last of the main 
line of the Valois family gave way to the first of the Valois-Orleans 
sovereigns in 1498, which date may be allowed to mark the be- 
ginning of modern French history. 

We shall now direct attention to the most important transac- 
tions of the period covered by the Capetian and Valois dynasties. 
Our aim will be to give prominence to those matters which con- 
cern the gradual consolidation of the French monarchy. 

France under the Capetians^ (987-1328). 

The first Capetian king differed from his vassal counts and dukes 
simply in having a more dignified title ; his power was scarcely 



-r 



1 Table of the Capetian Kings : 



Hugh Capet (the Great) 
Robert II. (the Sage) . 

Henry I 

Philip I 

Louis VI. (the Fat) . . 
Louis VII. (the Young) 
Philip II. (Augustus) , 



987- 996 
996-1031 
1031-1060 
1060-1108 
1108-1137 
1137-1180 
1 1 80-1 223 



Louis VIII. (Lion-hearted) 1 223-1 226 
Louis IX. (the Saint) . . 1226-1270 
Philip III. (the Hardy) . 1 280-1 285 
Philip IV. (the Fair) . . 1 285-1 314 
Louis X. (the Stubborn) . 1314-1316 
Philip V. (the Tall) . . 1316-1322 
Charles IV. (the Handsome) 1322-1 328 



492 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

greater than that of many of the lords who paid him homage as 
their suzerain. The fourth king of the hne (Phihp I.) confessed 
that he had grown gray while trying to capture a castle which 
stood within sight of Paris ; and evidently he had abandoned all 
hope of getting possession of it, for he charged his son, to whom 
he one day pointed it out, to watch it well. How various events 
and circumstances — conquests, treaties, politic marriage alliances, 
and unjust encroachments — conspired to build up the power of 
the kings will appear as we go on. 

The most noteworthy events of the Capetian period were the 
acquisition by the French crown of the Enghsh possessions in 
France, the Holy Wars for the recovery of Jerusalem, the crusade 
against the Albigenses, and the creation of the States-General. Of 
these several matters we will now speak in order. 

The English Possessions in France. — The issue of the battle 
of Hastings, in 1066, made Wilham of Normandy king of England. 
He ruled that country by right of conquest. But we must bear in 
mind that he still held his possessions in France as a fief from the 
French king, whose vassal he was. This was the beginning of the 
possessions on the continent of the English kings. Then, when 
Henry, Count of Anjou, came to the English throne as the first of 
the Plantagenets, these territories were greatly increased by the 
French possessions of that prince. The larger part of Henry's 
dominions, indeed, was in France, almost the whole of the west- 
ern coast of the country being in his hands ; but for all of this he, 
of course, paid homage to the French king. 

As was inevitable, a feeling of intense jealousy sprang up be- 
tween the two sovereigns. The French king was ever watching 
for some pretext upon which he might deprive his rival of his pos- 
sessions in France. The opportunity came when King John, in 
1 199, succeeded Richard the Lion-hearted upon the English 
throne. That odious tyrant was accused, and doubtless justly, of 
having murdered his nephew Arthur. Philip Augustus, who then 
held the French throne, as John's feudal superior, ordered him to 
clear himself of the charge before his French peers. John refus- 



THE FRENCH AND THE CRUSADES. 493 

ing to do so, Philip declared forfeited all the lands he held as fiefs 
of the French Crown,^ and thereupon proceeded to seize Normandy 
and other possessions of John in the North of France, leaving him 
scarcely anything save the Duchy of Aquitaine in the South. The 
annexation of these large possessions to the crown of France 
brought a vast accession of power and patronage to the king, who 
was now easily the superior of any of his great vassals. 

The French and the Crusades. — The age of the Capetians was 
the age of the Crusades. These romantic expeditions, while stir- 
ring all Christendom, appealed especially to the ardent, imagina- 
tive genius of the GaUic race. Three Capetian kings, Louis VII., 
Philip Augustus, and Louis IX., themselves headed several of the 
wild expeditions. 

It is the influence of the Crusades on the French monarchy that 
we alone need to notice in this place. They tended very materi- 
ally to weaken the power and influence of the feudal nobility, and 
in a corresponding degree to strengthen the authority of the crown 
and add to its dignity. The way in which they brought about this 
transfer of power from the aristocracy to the king has been ex- 
plained in the chapter on the Crusades (see p. 450). 

Crusade against the Albigenses (1207-12 29). — During this 
age of religious enthusiasm holy wars were directed as well against 
heretics as infidels. In the South of France was a sect of Chris- 
tians called Albigenses,^ who had departed so far from the faith of 
the Church, and had embraced such dangerous social heresies, that 
Pope Innocent III. felt constrained to call upon the French king 
and his nobles to lead a crusade against them. The outcome was 
the almost total extirpation of the heretical sect, and the acquisi- 
tion by the French crown of large and rich territories that were 

1 This was the second condemnation of John. A year before this time (in 
1202), John having refused to answer a charge of tyranny preferred by the 
nobles of Poitou, Philip had declared his fief to be forfeited. It was in the 
turmoil which followed this sentence, that Arthur was taken prisoner by John 
and afterwards murdered. 

2 From Albi, the name of a city and district in which their tenets prevailed. 



494 



GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 



formerly the possessions of the Counts of Toulouse, the patrons of 
the heretics. 

Creation of the States-General (1302). — The event of the 
greatest significance in the Capetian age was the admission, in the 
reign of Philip the Fair, of the commons to the feudal assembly, 
or council, of the king. This transaction is in French history 
what the first summoning of the House of Commons is in Eng- 
lish (see p. 480). 

A dispute having arisen between Philip and the Pope respecting 
the control of the offices and revenues of the French Church, in 
order to rally to his support all classes throughout his kingdom, 
Philip called an assembly, to which he invited representatives of 
the burghers, or inhabitants of the cities (1302). The royal 
council had hitherto been made up of two estates only, — the 
nobles and the clergy ; now is added what comes to be known as 
the Tiers Etat, or Third Estate, and henceforth the assembly is 
known as the States- General. Eventually, before the power of this 
Third Estate, we shall see the Church, the nobility, and the mon- 
archy all go down, through revolution ; just as in England we shall 
see clergy, nobles, and king gradually yield to the rising power of 
the English Commons. 



France under the House of Valois^ (1328-1498). 

Effects upon France of the Hundred Years' War. — The 

chief interest of that period of French history upon which we 
here enter attaches to that long struggle between England and 
France known as the Hundred Years' War. Having already, in 
connection with English affairs (see p. 484), touched upon the 
causes and incidents of this war, we shall here simply speak of 

^ Names of the sovereigns of the main line of the House of Valois : — • 



Philip VI. . . . . . . 1 328-1 350 

John (the Good) . . . 1350- 1364 
Charles V. (the Wise) . . 1364- 1380 
Charles VI. (the Well- 
Beloved) I 380-1422 



Charles VII. (the Victori- 
ous) 1422-1461 

Louis XI 1461-1483 

Charles VITI. (the Affa- 
ble) 1483-1498 



LOUIS XL AND CHARLES THE BOLD. 495 

the effects of the struggle on the French people and kingdom. 
Among these results must be noticed the almost complete pros- 
tration, by the successive shocks of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agin- 
court, of the French feudal aristocracy, which was already totter- 
ing to its fall through the undermining influences of the Crusades ; 
the growth of the power of the king, a consequence, largely, of 
the ruin of the nobihty ; and, lastly, the awakening of a feeling of 
nationality, and the drawing together of the hitherto isolated sec- 
tions of the country by the attraction of a common and patriotic 
enthusiasm. 

Speaking in a very general manner, we may say that by the 
close of the war Feudalism in France was over, and that France 
had become, partly in spite of the war but more largely by reason 
of it, not only a great monarchy, but a great nation. 

Louis XI. and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. — The founda- 
tions of the French monarchy were greatly enlarged and strength- 
ened by the unscrupulous measures of Louis XL (1461-1483), 
who was a perfect Ulysses in cunning and deceit. His maxim 
was, " He who knows how to deceive, knows how to reign." The 
great feudal lords that still retained power and influence, he 
brought to destruction one after another, and united their fiefs to 
the royal domains. Of all the vassal nobles ruined by the craft 
and cunning of Louis, the most famous and powerful was Charles 
the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, with whom the French king was 
almost constantly warring, and against whom he was forever in- 
triguing. Upon the death of the duke, Louis, without clear right, 
seized a great part of his dominions, which were almost large and 
rich enough to sustain the dignity of a king. By inheritance and 
treaty, Louis also gained large accessions of territory in the 
South of France, which gave his kingdom a wide frontage 
upon the Mediterranean, and made the Pyrenees its southern 
defence. 

Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. — Charles VHL, the son of 
Louis XL, was the last of the direct line of the Valois. Through 
the favor of a long series of circumstances, the persistent poHcy of 



496 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

his predecessors, and his own poHtic marriage/ he found himself 
at the head of a state that had been gradually transformed from a 
feudal league into a true monarchy. The strength of this kingdom 
he determined to employ in some enterprise beyond the limits of 
France. With a standing army, created by Charles VII. during 
the latter years of the war with England/ at his command, he in- 
vaded Italy, intent on the conquest of Naples, — to which he laid 
claim on the strength of some old bequest, — proposing, with that 
state subdued, to lead a crusade to the East against the Turks. 
He reached Naples in triumph, but was soon forced, with heavy 
losses, to retreat into France. 

This enterprise of Charles is noteworthy not only because it 
marks the commencement of a long series of brilHant yet disas- 
trous campaigns carried on by the French in Italy, but also on 
account of Charles' army having been made up largely of paid- 
troops instead of feudal retainers, which fact assures us that the 
Feudal System in France, as a governmental organization, had come 
to an end. 

Beginnings of French Literature, 

The Troubadours. — The contact of the old Latin speech in 
Gaul with that of the Teutonic invaders gave rise there to two 
very distinct dialects. These were the Langiie d' Oc, or Proven- 
gal, the tongue of the South of France and of the adjoining regions 
of Spain and Italy ; and the Langue d' Oil, or French proper, the 
language of the North.^ 

1 He married Anne of Brittany, and thus brought that large province, which 
had hitherto constituted an almost independent state, under the authority of 
the French crown. 

2 The paid force of infantry and cavalry created by Charles VII. in 1448, 
was the first standing army in Europe, and the beginning of that vast military 
system which now burdens the great nations of that continent with the sup- 
port of several millions of soldiers constantly under arms. 

3 The terms Langue d'' Oc and Langue d'' Oil arose from the use of different 
words for yes, which in the tongue of the South was oc, and in that of the 
North oil. 



THE TROUVEURS. 497 

About the beginning of the twelfth century, by which time the 
Provencal tongue had become settled and somewhat polished, liter- 
ature in France first began to find a voice in the songs of the Trou- 
badours, the poets of the South. It is instructive to note that it 
was the home of the Albigensian heresy, the land that had felt the 
influence of every Mediterranean civilization, that was also the home 
of the Troubadour hterature. The Counts of Toulouse, the pro- 
tectors of the heretics, were also the patrons of the poets. The 
same fierce persecution that uprooted the heretical faith of the 
Albigenses, also stilled the song of the Troubadours (see p. 493). 

The verses of the Troubadours were sung in every land, and to 
the stimulating influence of their musical harmonies the early 
poetry of almost every people of Europe is largely indebted. 

The TroTiveurs. — These were the poets of- Northern France, 
who composed in the Langiie d^ Oil, or Old French tongue. They 
flourished during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. While the 
compositions of the Troubadours were almost exclusively lyrical 
songs, those of the Trouveurs were epic, or narrative poems, called 
romances. They gather about three great names, — King Arthur, 
Alexander the Great, and Charlemagne. It will be noted that the 
poet story-tellers thus drew their material from the heroic legends 
of all the different races that blended to form the French nation, 
namely, the Celtic, the Grseco-Roman, and the Teutonic. 

The influence of these French romances upon the springing lit- 
eratures of Europe was most inspiring and helpful. Nor has their 
influence yet ceased. Thus in English literature, not only did 
Chaucer and Spenser and all the early island-poets draw inspiration 
from these fountains of continental song, but the later Tennyson, 
in his Idylls of the King, has illustrated the power over the imagina- 
tion yet possessed by the Arthurian poems of the old Trouveurs. 

Froissart's Chronicles. — The first really noted prose writer in 
French literature was Froissart (133 7-14 10), whose entertain- 
ing credulity and artlessness, and skill as a story-teller, have won 
for him the title of the French Herodotus. Born, as he was, only 
a little after the opening of the Hundred Years' War, and know- 



498 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

ing personally many of the actors in that struggle, it was fitting 
that he should become, as he did, the annalist of those stirring times. 

3. Spain. 

The Beginnings of Spain. — When, in the eighth century, the 
Saracens swept like a wave over vSpain, the mountains of Asturia, 
in the northwest corner of the peninsula, afforded a refuge for 
the most resolute of the Christian chiefs who refused to submit 
their necks to the Moslem yoke. These brave and hardy war- 
riors not only successfully defended the hilly districts that formed 
their retreat, but gradually pushed back the invaders, and regained 
control of a portion of the fields and cities that had been lost. 
This work of reconquest' was greatly furthered by Charlemagne, 
who, it will be recalled, drove the Saracens out of all the north- 
eastern portion of the country as far south as the Ebro, and made 
the subjugated district a province of his great empire, under the 
name of the Spanish March. 

By the opening of the eleventh century several little Christian 
states, among which we must notice the names of Castile and Ara- 
gon, because of the prominent part they were to play in later 
history, had been established upon the ground thus recovered or 
always maintained. Castile was at first simply " a line of castles " 
against the Moors, whence its name. 

Union of Castile and Ar agon (1479). — For several centuries 
the princes of the little states to which we have referred kept up 
an incessant warfare with their Mohammedan neighbors ; owing 
however to dissensions among themselves, they were unable to 
combine in any effective way for the reconquest of their ancient 
possessions. But the marriage, in 1469, of Ferdinand, prince of 
Aragon, to Isabella, princess of Castile, paved the way for the 
union a little later of these two leading states. Thus the quarrels 
of these rival principalities were composed, and they were now free 
to employ their united strength in effecting what the Christian 
princes amidst all their contentions had never lost sight of, — the 
expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula. 



THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA. 499 

The Conquest of Granada (1492). — At the time when the 
basis of the Spanish monarchy was laid by the union of Castile and 
Aragon, the Mohammedan possessions had been reduced, by the 
constant pressure of the Christian chiefs through eight centuries, 
to a very limited dominion in the south of Spain. Here the 
Moors had established a strong, well-compacted state, known as 
the Kingdom of Granada. 

As soon as Ferdinand and Isabella had settled the affairs of 
their dominions, they began to make preparation for the con- 
quest of Granada, eager to signalize their reign by the reduction 



THE ALHAMBRA. PALACE OF THE MOORISH KINGS AT GRANADA. 
(From a photograph.) 

of this last stronghold of the Moorish power in the peninsula. 
The Moors made a desperate defence of their little state. The 
struggle lasted for ten years. City after city fell into the hands of 
the Christian knights, and finally the capital, Granada, pressed by 
an army of seventy thousand, was forced to surrender, and the 
Cross replaced the Crescent on its walls and towers (1492). The 
Moors, or Moriscoes, as they were called, were allowed to remain 
in the country and to retain their Mohammedan worship, though 
under many annoying restrictions. What is known as their expul- 
sion occurred at a later date (see p. 538). 



500 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

The fall of Granada holds an important place among the many 
significant events that mark the latter half of the fifteenth century. 
It ended, after an existence of eight hundred years, the Moham- 
medan kingdom in the Spanish peninsula, and thus formed an 
offset to the progress of the Moslem power in Eastern Europe and 
the loss to the Christian world of Constantinople. It advanced 
Spain to the first rank among the nations of Europe, and gave her 
arms a prestige that secured for her position, influence, and defer- 
ence long after the decline of her power had commenced. 

The Inquisition. — Ferdinand greatly enhanced his power by the 
active and tyrannical use of the Inquisition, a court that had been 
established by the Church for the purpose of detecting and punish- 
ing heresy. The chief victims of the tribunal were the Moors and 
Jews, but it was also directed against the enemies of the sovereign 
among the nobiUty and the clergy. The Holy Office, as the 
tribunal was styled, thus became the instrument of the most 
incredible cruelty. Thousands were burned at the stake, and tens 
of thousands more condemned to endure penalties scarcely less 
terrible. Queen Isabella, in giving her consent to the establish- 
ment of the tribunal in her dominions, was doubtless actuated by 
the purest religious zeal, and sincerely believed that in suppress- 
ing heresy she was discharging a simple duty, and rendering God 
good service. " In the love of Christ and his Maid-Mother," she 
says, " I have caused great misery. I have depopulated towns 
and districts, provinces and kingdoms." 

Death of Ferdinand and of Isabella. — Queen Isabella died in 
1504, and Ferdinand followed her in the year 15 16, upon which 
latter event the crown of Spain descended upon the head of his 
grandson, Charles, of whom we shall hear much as Emperor 
Charles V. With his reign the modern history of Spain begins. 

Beginnings of the Spanish Language and Literature. 

The Language. — After the union of Castile and Aragon it was 
the language of the former that became the speech of the Spanish 
court. During the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella it gradually 



THE POEM OF THE CID. 



501 



gained the ascendancy over the numerous dialects of the country, 
and became the national speech, just as in France the Langue 
d'Oil finally crowded out all other dialects. By the conquests and 
colonizations of the sixteenth century this Castilian speech was des- 
tined to become only less widely spread than the EngHsh tongue. 
The Poem of the Cid. — Castihan, or Spanish literature begins 
in the twelfth century with the romance-poem of the Cid (that is, 
Chief, the title of the hero of the poem), one of the great literary 
productions of the mediaeval period. This grand national poem 
was the outgrowth of the sentiments inspired by the long struggle 
between the Spanish Christians and the Mohammedan Moors. 





SARCOPHAGUS OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, AT GRANADA 
(From a photograph.) 

4. Germany. 

Beginnings of the Kingdom of Germany. — The history of 
Germany as a separate kingdom begins with the break-up of the 
empire of Charlemagne (see p. 408). Germany at that time com- 
prised several groups of tribes, — the Saxons, the Suabians, the 
Thuringians, the Bavarians, and the Franks. Closely allied in 
race, speech, manners, and social arrangements, all these peoples 
seemed ready to be welded into a close and firm nation ; but, un- 



502 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

fortunately, the circumstances tending to keep the several states or 
communities apart were stronger than those operating to draw 
them together, so that for a thousand years after Charlemagne we 
find them constituting hardly anything more than a very loose con- 
federation, the members of which were constantly strugghng 
among themselves for supremacy, or were engaged in private wars 
with the neighboring nations.^ 

That which more than all else operated to prevent Germany 
from becoming a powerful, closely-knit nation, was the adoption 
by the German rulers of an unfortunate policy respecting a world- 
empire. This matter will be explained in the following paragraphs. 

Renewal of the Roman Empire by Otto the Great (962). — 
When the dominions of Charlemagne were divided among his 
three grandsons (see p. 408), the Imperial title was given to 
Lothair, to whom fell Italy and the Rhine-land. The title, how- 
ever, meant scarcely anything, carrying with it little or no real 
authority. Thus matters ran on for more than a century, the 
empty honor of the title sometimes being enjoyed by the kings 
of Italy, and again by those of Germany. 

But with the accession of the second of the Saxon line, Otto I., 
who was crowned king at Aachen in 936, there appeared among 
the princes of Europe a second Charlemagne. He was easily first 
among them all. Besides being king of Germany, he became, 
through interference on request in the affairs of Italy, king of that 
country also. Furthermore, he wrested large tracts of land from 
the Slavonians, and forced the Danes, Poles, and Hungarians to 
acknowledge his suzerainty. Thus favored by fortune, he natur- 

1 During the mediaeval period, Germany was under the following lines of 
kings and emperors : — 



Carolingians . . . 
Conrad of Franconia 
Saxon Emperors 
Franconian Emperors 
Lothair of Saxony . 



843- 911 

911- 918 

919-1024 

I 024- I 125 

1125-1137 



Hohenstaufen Emperors . 1 1 38-1 254 



The Interregnum . . . 1 254-1 273 
Emperors of different 

Houses 1 273-1438 

Emperors of the House of 

Austria 1438- 



REVIVAL OF THE EMPIRE. 503 

ally conceived the idea of restoring once more the Roman empire, 
even as it had been revived by Charles the Great (see p. 406). 

So in 962, just a little more than a century and a half after the 
coronation at Rome of Charlemagne as emperor, Otto, at the 
same place and by the same papal authority, was crowned Emperor 
of the Romans. For a generation no one had borne the title. 
From this time on it was the rule that the German king who was 
crowned at Aachen had a right to be crowned king of Italy at 
Milan, and emperor at Rome (Freeman). Thus three crowns, 
and in time still more, came to be heaped upon a single head. 

Consequences to Germany of the Revival of the Empire. — 
The scheme of Otto respecting a world-empire was a grand one, 
but, as had been demonstrated by the failure of the attempt of 
Charlemagne, was an utterly impracticable idea. It was simply a 
dream, and never became anything more than a ghostly shadow. 
Yet the pursuit of this phantom by the German kings resulted in 
the most woeful consequences to Germany. Trying to grasp too 
much, these rulers seized nothing at all. Attempting to be em- 
perors of the world, they failed to become even kings of Germany. 
While engaged in their schemes of foreign conquest, their home 
affairs were neglected, and their vassals succeeded in increasing 
their power and making it hereditary. Thus while the kings of 
England, France, and Spain were gradually consolidating their 
dominions, and building up strong centrahzed monarchies on the 
ruins of Feudalism, the sovereigns of Germany, neglecting the 
affairs of their own kingdom, were allowing it to become split up 
into a vast number of virtually independent states, the ambitions 
and jealousies of whose rulers were to postpone the unification of 
Germany for four or five hundred years — until our own day. 

Had the emperors inflicted loss and disaster upon Germany 
alone through their pursuit of this phantom, the case would not be 
so lamentable ; but Italy was made the camping field of the 
Imperial armies, and the whole peninsula kept distracted with the 
bitter quarrels of Guelphs and Ghibellines (see p. 504), and thus the 
nationalization of the Italian people was also delayed for centuries. 



504 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS, 

Germany received just one positive compensation for all this 
loss accruing from the ambition of her kings. This was the gift 
of Italian civihzation, which came into the country through the 
connections of the emperors with the peninsula. 

Germany under the Hohenstaufen Emperors (i 138-1254). — 
The Hohenstaufen, or Suabian dynasty was a most notable line of 
emperors. The matter of chief importance in German history 
under the Hohenstaufen is the long and bitter conflict, begun gen- 
erations before, that was waged between them and the Popes (see 
p. 455). Germany and Italy were divided into two great parties, 
known as Welfs and Waiblings, or, as designated in Italy, Guelphs 
and Ghibellines, the former adhering to the Pope, the latter to the 
Emperor. The issue of a century's contention was the complete 
ruin of the House of Hohenstaufen. 

The most noted ruler of the line was Frederick I. (11 5 2-1 190), 
better known as Frederick Ba^-barossa, from his red beard. He 
gave Germany a good and strong government, and gained a sure 
place in the affections of the German people, who came to regard 
him as the representative of the sentiment of German nationaHty. 
When news of his death was brought back from the East, — it will 
be recalled that he took part in the Third Crusade, and lost his 
life in Asia Minor (see p. 445), — they refused to believe that he 
was dead, and, as time passed, a tradition arose which told how he 
slept in a cavern beneath one of his castles on a mountain-top, and 
how, when the ravens should cease to circle about the hill, he would 
appear, to make the German people a nation united and strong. 

Frederick Barbarossa was followed by his son Henry VI. (1190- 
1197), who, by marriage, had acquired a claim to the kingdom of 
Sicily.^ Almost all his time and resources were spent in reducing 

^ The Hohenstaufen held the kiHgdom until 1265, when the Pope gave it 
as a fief to Charles I. of Anjou (brother of Louis IX. of France), who beheaded 
the rightful heir, the ill-starred boy Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen 
race (1268). Charles' oppressive rule led to a revolt of his island subjects, 
and to the great massacre known as the Sicilian Vespers (1282). All of the 
hated race of Frenchmen were either killed or driven out of the island. 



CA THEDRAL-B UILDING. 505 

that remote realm to a state of proper subjection to his authority. 
By thus leading the emperors to neglect their German subjects and 
interests, this southern kingdom proved a fatal dower to the Suabian 
house. 

By the close of the Hohenstaufen period, Germany was divided 
into two hundred and seventy-six virtually independent states, the 
princes and nobles having taken advantage of the prolonged ab- 
sences of the emperors, or their troubles with the Popes, to free 
themselves almost completely from the control of the crown. There 
was really no longer either a German kingdom or a Roman empire. 

Cathedral-building. — The age of the Hohenstaufen was the 
age of the Crusades, which is to say that it was the age of religious 
faith. The most striking expression of the spirit of the period, if 
we except the Holy Wars, is to be found in the sacred architecture 
of the time. The style of architecture first employed was the 
Romanesque, characterized by the rounded arch and the dome ; 
but towards the close of the twelfth century this was superseded by 
the Gothic, distinguished by the pointed arch, the tower or the 
slender spire, and rich ornamentation. 

The enthusiasm for church-building was universal throughout 
Europe ; yet nowhere did it find nobler or more sustained expres- 
sion than in Germany. Among the most noted of the German 
cathedrals are the one at Strasburg, begun in the eleventh century, 
and that at Cologne, commenced in 1248, but not wholly finished 
until our own day (in 1880). 

Rise of the Swiss Republic. — The most noteworthy matters in 
German history during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are 
the struggles between the Swiss and the dukes of Austria ; the 
religious movement of the Hussites ; and the growing power of 
the House of Austria. 

From early in the eleventh century, the country now known as 
Switzerland was a part of the Holy Roman Empire ; but its lib- 
erty-loving people never acknowledged any man as their master, 
save the German emperor, to whom they yielded a merely nomi- 
nal obedience. The dukes of Austria, princes of the empire, 



506 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

laid claim to a certain authority Over them, and tried to make 
themselves masters in Switzerland. This led to a memorable 
struggle between the dukes and the brave mountaineers. To the 
early part of the contest belongs the legend of William Tell, which 
historical criticism now pronounces a myth, with nothing but the 
revolt as the nucleus of fact. 

In 1315, at the noted battle of Morgarten Pass, the Austrians 
suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Swiss patriots. Later 
in the same century, the Austrians sustained another defeat on the 
memorable field of Sempach (1386). It was here, tradition says, 
that Arnold of Winkelried broke the ranks of the Austrians, by 
collecting in his arms as many of their lances as he could, and, as 
they pierced his breast, bearing them with him to the ground, 
exclaiming, " Comrades, I will open a road for you." 

Shortly after the battle of Sempach, the Eidgenossen, or Con- 
federates, as the Swiss were at this time called, gained another 
victory over the Austrians at Wafels (1388), which placed on a 
firm basis the growing power of the League. 

The Hussites. — About the beginning of the fifteenth century, 
the doctrines of the English reformer, Wycliffe (see p. 490) began 
to spread in Bohemia. The chief of the new sect was John Huss, 
a professor of the University of Prague. The doctrines of the 
reformer were condemned by the great Council of Constance, and 
Huss himself, having been delivered over into the hands of the 
civil authorities for punishment, was burned at the stake (1415). 
The following year Jerome of Prague, another reformer, was like- 
wise burned. 

Shortly after the burning of Huss a crusade was proclaimed 
against his followers, who had risen in arms. Then began a cruel, 
desolating war of fifteen years, the outcome of which was the 
almost total extermination of the radical party among the Hussites. 
With the more moderate of the reformers, however, a treaty was 
made which secured them freedom of worship. 

The Imperial Crown becomes Hereditary in the House of 
Austria (1438). — In the year 1438, Albert, Duke of Austria, 



THE IMPERIAL CROWN. 



507 



was raised by the Electors ^ to the Imperial throne. His accession 
marks an epoch in German history, for from this time until the 
dissolution of the empire by Napoleon in 1806, the Imperial 
crown was regarded as hereditary in 
the Hapsburg^ family, the Electors, 
although never failing to go through 
the formality of an election, almost 
always choosing one of the members 
of that house as king. 

From the beginning of the practi- 
cally uninterrupted succession upon 
the Imperial throne of the princes of 
the House of Austria, up to the close 
of the Middle Ages, the power and 
importance of the family steadily in- 
creased, until it seemed that Austria 
would overshadow all the other Ger- 
man states,, and subject them to her 
sway ; would, in a word, become Ger- 
many, just as Francia in Gaul had 
become France. But this, as we shall 
learn, never came about. 

The greatest of the Hapsburg line 
during the mediaeval period was Maxi- 
milian I. (1493-1519). His reign is in every way a noteworthy one 
in German history, marking, as it does, a strong tendency to central- 
ization, and the material enhancement of the Imperial authority. 

1 When, in the beginning of the tenth century, the German Carolingian Une 
became extinct, the great nobles of the kingdom assumed the right of choosing 
the successor of the last of the house, and Germany thus became an elective 
feudal monarchy. In the course of time a few of the leading nobles usurped 
the right of choosing the kmg, and these princes became known as Electors. 
There were, at the end of the Hohenstaufen period, seven princes who enjoyed 
this important privilege, four of whom were secular princes and three spiritual. 

2 The House of Austria is often so called from the Castle of Hapsburg in 
Switzerland, the cradle of the family. 




GERMAN FOOT-SOLDIER. 
(15th Century.) 



508 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

Beginning of German Literature. 

Song of the Nibelungen. — It was under the patronage of the 
Hohenstaufen that Germany produced the first pieces of a national 
Hterature. The " Song of the Nibelungen " is the great German 
mediaeval epic. It was reduced to writing about 1200, being a 
recast, by some Homeric genius, perhaps, of ancient German and 
Scandinavian legends and lays dating from the sixth and seventh 
centuries. The hero of the story is Siegfried, the Achilles of 
Teutonic legend and song. 

The Minnesingers. — Under the same emperors, during the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Minnesingers, or lyric poets, 
flourished. They were the " Troubadours of Germany." For the 
most part, refined and tender and chivalrous and pure, the songs 
of these poets tended to soften the manners and lift the hearts of 
the German people. 

5 . Russia. 

Beginnings of Russia. — We have seen how, about the middle 
of the ninth century, the Swedish adventurer Ruric laid, among 
the Slavonian tribes dwelling eastward from the Baltic, the founda- 
tion of what was destined to become one of the leading powers 
of Europe (see p. 411). The state came to be known as Russia, 
probably from the word Ruotsi (corsairs?), the name given by the 
Finns to the foreigners. 

The Tartar Conquest. — In the thirteenth century an over- 
whelming calamity befell Russia. This was the overrunning and 
conquest of the country by the Tartar hordes (see p. 461). The 
barbarian conquerors inflicted the most horrible atrocities upon 
the unfortunate land, and for more than two hundred years held the 
Russian princes in a degrading bondage, forcing them to pay 
homage and tribute. This misfortune delayed for centuries the 
nationalization of the Slavonian peoples. 

Russia freed from the Mongols. — It was not until the reign of 
Ivan the Great (146 2-15 05) that Russia, — now frequently called 



NO NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 509 

Muscovy from the fact that it had been reorganized with Moscow 
as a centre, — after a terrible struggle, succeeded in freeing itself 
from the hateful Tartar domination, and began to assume the 
character of a well-consolidated monarchy. 

Thus, by the end of the Middle Ages, Russia had become a 
really great power ; but she was as yet too much hemmed in by 
hostile states to be able to make her influence felt in the affairs 
of Europe. Between her and the Caspian and Euxine were the 
Tartars ; shutting her out from the Baltic were the Swedes and 
other peoples ; and between her and Germany were the Lithuanians 
and Poles. 

6. Italy. 

No National Government. — In marked contrast to all those 
countries of which we have thus far spoken, unless we except 
Germany, Italy came to the close of the Middle Ages without a 
national or regular government. This is to be attributed in large 
part to that unfortunate rivalry between Pope and Emperor which 
resulted in dividing Italy into the two hostile camps of Guelph 
and Ghibelline. And yet the mediaeval period did not pass with- 
out attempts on the part of patriot spirits to effect some sort of 
political union among the different cities and states of the penin- 
sula. The most noteworthy of these movements, and one which 
gave assurance that the spark of patriotism which was in time to 
flame into an inextinguishable passion for national unity was kind- 
ling in the Italian heart, was that headed by the hero Rienzi, in the 
fourteenth century. 

Rienzi, Tribune of Rome (1347). — During the greater part of 
the fourteenth century the seat of the Papal See was at Avignon, 
beyond the Alps (see p. 457). Throughout this period of the 
" Babylonish captivity," Rome, deprived of her natural guardians, 
was in a state of the greatest confusion. The nobles terrorized 
the country about the capital, and kept the streets of the city 
itself in constant turmoil with their bitter feuds. 

In the midst of these disorders there appeared from among the 



510 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

lowest ranks of the people a deliverer in the person of one Nicola 
di Rienzi. Possessed of considerable talent and great eloquence, 
Rienzi easily incited the people to a revolt against the rule, or 
rather misrule, of the nobles, and succeeded in having himself, 
with the title of Tribune, placed at the head of a new government 
for Rome. 

Encouraged by the success that had thus far attended his 
schemes, Rienzi now began to concert measures for the union of 
all the principalities and commonwealths of Italy in a great repub- 
lic, with Rome as its capital. He sent ambassadors throughout 
Italy to plead, at the courts of the princes and in the council- 
chamber of the municipalities, the cause of Italian unity and free- 
dom. The splendid dream of Rienzi was shared by other Italian 
patriots besides himself, among whom was the poet Petrarch, who 
was the friend and encourager of the "plebeian hero." 

But the moment for Italy's unification had not yet come. Not 
only were there hindrances to the national movement in the am- 
bitions and passions of rival parties and classes, but there were still 
greater impediments in the character of the plebeian patriot him- 
self. Rienzi proved to be an unworthy leader. His sudden ele- 
vation and surprising success completely turned his head, and he 
soon began to exhibit the most incredible vanity and weakness. 
The people withdrew from him their support, and he was finally 
assassinated. 

Thus vanished the dream of Rienzi and Petrarch, of the hero 
and the poet. Centuries of division, of shameful subjection to 
foreign princes, — French, Spanish, and Austrian, — of wars and 
suffering, were yet before the Italian people ere Rome should be- 
come the centre of a free, orderly, and united Italy. 

The Renaissance. — Though the Middle Ages closed in Italy 
without the rise there of a national government, still before the end 
of the period much had been done to awaken those common ideas 
and sentiments upon which political unity can alone safely repose. 
Literature and art here performed the part that war did in other 
countries in arousing a national spirit. The Renaissance (see p. 



THE RENAISSANCE. 511 

474) did much toward creating among the Itahans a common 
pride in race and country ; and thus this great literary and artistic 
enthusiasm was the first step in a course of national develop- 
ment which was to lead the Italian people to a common political 
life. 

Upon the literary phase of the Italian Renaissance we have said 
something in the chapter on the Revival of Learning (see p. 474) ; 
we shall here say just a word respecting the artistic side of the 
movement. 

The most splendid period of the art revival covered the latter 
part of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth. The 
characteristic art of the Renaissance in Italy was painting, although 
the aesthetic genius of the Itahans also expressed itself both in 
architecture and sculpture.^ The mediaeval artists devoted them- 
selves to painting instead of sculpture, for the reason that it best 
expresses the ideas and sentiments of Christianity. The art that 
would be the handmaid of the Church needed to be able to repre- 
sent faith and hope, ecstasy and suffering, — none of which things 
can well be expressed by sculpture, which is essentially the art of 
repose. 

Savonarola (1452-1498). — A word must here be said respect- 
ing the Florentine monk and reformer Girolamo Savonarola, who 
stands as the most noteworthy personage in Italy during the clos- 
ing years of the mediaeval period. 

Savonarola was at once Roman censor and Hebrew prophet. 
Such a preacher of righteousness the world had not seen since the 
days of Elijah. His powerful preaching alarmed the conscience 
of the Florentines. At his suggestion the women brought their 

1 The four supreme masters of the Italian Renaissance were Leonardo da 
Vinci (1452-1519), Michael Angelo (1475-1564), Raphael (1483-1520), and 
Titian (1477-1576). All were great painters. Perhaps the one of greatest, 
at least of most varied, genius, was Michael Angelo, who was at once archi- 
tect, painter, and sculptor. His grandest architectural triumph was the majes- 
tic dome of St. Peter's, — which work, however, he did not live to see com- 
pleted. 



512 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. 

finery and ornaments, and others their beautiful works of art, and 
pihng them in great heaps in the streets of Florence, burned them 
as "vanities." Savonarola even persuaded the people of Florence 
to set up a sort of theocratic government, of which Christ was the 
acknowledged head. But at length the activity of his enemies 
brought about the reformer's downfall, and he was condemned to 
death, executed, and his body burned. Savonarola may be re- 
garded as the last great mediaeval forerunner of the reformers of 
the sixteenth century. 

7. The Northern Countries. 

The Union of Calmar. — The great Scandinavian Exodus of the 
ninth and tenth centuries drained the Northern lands of some of 
the best elements of their population. For this reason these coun- 
tries did not play as prominent a part in mediaeval history as they 
would otherwise have done. The constant quarrels between their 
sovereigns and the nobility were also another cause of internal 
weakness. 

In the year 1397, by what is known as the Union of Calmar, the 
three kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were united 
under Margaret of Denmark, " the Semiramis of the North." The 
treaty provided that each country should make its own laws. But 
the treaty was violated, and though the friends of the measure 
had hoped much from it, it brought only jealousies, feuds, and 
wars. 

The Swedes arose again and again in revolt, and finally, under 
the lead of a nobleman named Gustavus Vasa, made good their 
independence (1523). During the seventeenth century, under 
the descendants and successors of the Liberator, Sweden was des- 
tined to play an important part in the affairs of the continent. 

Norway became virtually a province of Denmark, and the 
Norwegian nobles were driven into exile or killed. The country 
remained attached to the Danish Crown until the present century. 




SECTION IL — MODERN HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As an introduction to the history of the Modern Age, we shall 
give a brief account of the voyages and geographical discoveries of 
Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, and of the beginning 
of European conquests and settlements in the New World, inas- 
much as these great events lie at the opening of the era and form 
the prelude of its story. 

Discovery of the New World by Columbus (1492). — Chris- 
topher Columbus was one of those 
Genoese navigators who, when 
Genoa's Asiatic lines of trade were 
broken by the irruption of the 
Turks (see p. 467), conceived the 
idea of reaching India by an 
ocean route. While others were 
endeavoring to reach that country 
by sailing around the southern 
point of Africa, he proposed the 
bolder plan of reaching this east- 
ern land by sailing directly west- 
ward. The sphericity of the earth 
was a doctrine held by many at 
that day ; but the theory was not 
in harmony with the religious ideas 
of the time, and so it was not pru- 
dent for one to pubhsh too openly one's behef in the notion. 

In his endeavors to secure a patron for his enterprise, Columbus 




COLUMBUS. 

(After the Yanez Portrait in the Madrid 
Library.) 



514 



IN TR OD UC TION. 



met at first with repeated repulse and disappointment. At last, 
however, he gained the ear of Queen Isabella of Spain ; a little 
fleet was fitted out for the explorer, — and the New World was 
found. 

Columbus never received a fitting reward for the great service 
he had rendered mankind. Even the continent to which he had 
shown the way, instead of being called after him as a perpetual 
memorial, was named from a Florentine navigator, Amerigo Ves- 
pucci, whose chief claim to this distinction was his having published 
the first account of the new lands. 




THE OCEAN AND ISLANDS BETWEEN WESTERN EUROPE AND EASTERN ASIA. 
From the Globe of Martin Behaim, 1492. (Cathaja= China ; Cipango= Japan.) 



The Voyage of Vasco da Gama (149 7-1498). — The favorable 
position of Portugal upon the Atlantic seaboard naturally led her 
sovereigns to conceive the idea of competing with the Italian cities 
for the trade of the East Indies, by opening up an ocean route to 
those lands. During all the latter part of the fifteenth century 
Portuguese sailors were year after year penetrating a little farther 
into the mysterious tropical seas, and exploring new reaches of the 
western coast of Africa. 

In 1487 the most southern point of the continent was reached, 



THE VOYAGE AROUND THE GLOBE. 515 

and was named the Cape of Good Hope, as the possibiHty of 
reaching India by sea now seemed assured. A decade later 
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese admiral, doubled the Cape, crossed 
the Indian Sea, and landed on the coast of Malabar (1498). 

The discovery of a water-path to India effected, as we have 
already noticed (see p. 467), most important changes in the traffic 
of the world. It made the ports of Portugal and of other coun- 
tries on the Atlantic seaboard the depots of the Eastern trade. 
^'The front of Europe was suddenly changed." The Itahan mer- 
chants were ruined. The great warehouses of Egypt and Syria 
were left empty. The traffic of the Mediterranean dwindled to 
insignificant proportions. Portugal established trading-posts and 
colonies in the East, and built up there a great empire, — like 
that which England is maintaining in the same region at the 
present day. 

The Voyage around the Globe (15 19-15 2 2). — Upon the re- 
turn of Columbus from his successful expedition. Pope Alexander 
VI., with a view to adjusting the conflicting claims of Spain and 
Portugal, divided the world by a meridian line drawn about mid- 
way through the Atlantic, and gave to the Spanish sovereigns 
all unclaimed pagan lands that their subjects might find west 
of this Hne, and to the Portuguese kings all new pagan lands dis- 
covered by Portuguese navigators east of the designated merid- 
ian. 

The determination on the part of the king of Spain to acquire 
title under the papal grant to the valuable Spice Islands of the 
Pacific by reaching them through sailing westward, led him to 
organize an expedition of discovery in the western seas. The 
little fleet was entrusted to the command of Magellan, a Portu- 
guese admiral. 

Magellan directed his fleet in a southwesterly course across the 
Atlantic, hoping to find towards the south a break in the land dis- 
covered by Columbus. Near the most southern point of Patago- 
nia he found the narrow strait that now bears his name, through 
which he pushed his vessel into the sea beyond. From the calm, 



516 INTRODUCTION. 

unruffled face of the new ocean, so different from the stormy 
Atlantic, he gave to it the name Pacific. 

After a most adventurous voyage upon the hitherto untraversed 
waters of the new sea, the expedition reached the Spice Islands, 
and eventually arrived home, after an absence of over three years. 
For the first time men had gone around the globe that they had 
so long lived upon. The achievement of course settled forever 
the question as to the shape of the earth. It pushed aside all the 
old narrow geographical ideas, and broadened immensely the 
physical horizon of the world. 

Conquest of Mexico (15 19-15 21). — Soon after the discovery 
of the New World, Spanish settlements were established upon the 
islands in front of the Gulf of Mexico. Among the colonists here 
were constantly spread reports of a great and rich Indian mon- 
archy upon the mainland to the west. These stories inflamed the 
imagination of the more adventurous among the settlers, and an 
expedition was organized and placed under the command of 
Hernando Cortez, for the conquest and " conversion " of the 
heathen nation. The expedition^as successful, and soon the 
Spaniards were masters of the greater part of Mexico. 

The state that the conquerors destroyed was hardly an 
"empire," as termed by the Spanish writers, but rather a con- 
federacy, somewhat like the Iroquois confederacy in the North. 
It embraced three tribes, of which the Aztecs were leaders. At 
the head of the league was a war-chief, who bore the name of 
Montezuma. 

The Mexican Indians had taken some steps in civilization. 
They employed a system of picture-writing, and had cities and 
temples. But they were cannibals, and offered human sacrifices 
to their gods. They had no knowledge of the horse or of the ox, 
and were of course ignorant of the use of fire-arms. 

The Conquest of Peru (1532-1536). — Shortly after the con- 
quest of the Indians of Mexico, the subjugation of the Indians of 
Peru was also effected. The civilization of the Peruvians was 
superior to that of the Mexicans. Not only were the great cities 



CONQUEST OF PERU. 517 

of the Peruvian empire filled with splendid temples and palaces, 
but throughout the country were magnificent works of public 
utility, such as roads, bridges, and aqueducts. The government 
of the Incas, the royal, or ruling race, was a mild, parental au- 
tocracy. 

Glowing reports of the enormous wealth of the Incas, — the 
commonest articles in whose palaces, it was asserted, were of solid 
gold, reached the Spaniards by way of the Isthmus of Darien, and it 
was not long before an expedition was organized for the conquest 
of the country. The leader of the band was Francisco Pizarro, 
an iron-hearted, perfidious, and illiterate adventurer. 

Through treachery, Pizarro made a prisoner of the Inca Ata- 
hualpa. The captive offered, as a ransom for his release, to fill 
the room in which he was confined " as high as he could reach " 
with vessels of gold. Pizarro accepted the offer, and the palaces 
and temples throughout the empire were stripped of their golden 
vessels, and the apartment was filled with the precious relics. The 
value of the treasure is estimated at over ^17,000,000. When this 
vast wealth was once under the control of the Spaniards, they 
seized it all, and then treacherously put the Inca to death (1533). 
With the death of Atahualpa the power of the Inca dynasty 
passed away forever. 

Spanish Colonization in the New World. — Not until more 
than one hundred years after the discovery of the Western Hemi- 
sphere by Columbus, was there estabhshed a single permanent 
English settlement within the limits of what is now the United 
States, the portion of the New World destined to be taken pos- 
session of by the peoples of Northern Europe, and to become the 
home of civil and religious freedom. 

But into those parts of the new lands opened up by Spanish 
exploration and conquest there began to pour at once a tremen- 
dous stream of Spanish adventurers and colonists, in search of 
fortune and fame. It was a sort of Spanish migration. The 
movement might be compared to the rush of population from the 
Eastern States to California, after the announcement of the dis- 



518 INTRODUCTION. 

covery there of gold, in 1848-9. Upon the West India Islands, 
in Mexico, in Central America, all along the Pacific slope of the 
Andes, and everywhere upon the lofty and pleasant table-lands 
that had formed the heart of the empire of the Incas, there sprang 
up rapidly great cities as the centres of mining and agricultural 
industries, of commerce and of trade. Thus did a Greater Spain 
grow up in the New World. It was, in a large measure, the treas- 
ures derived from these new possessions that enabled the sover- 
eigns of Spain to play the imposing part they did in the affairs of 
Europe during the century following the discovery of Am.erica.^ 

1 After having robbed the Indians of their wealth in gold and silver, the 
slow accumulations of centuries, the Spaniards further enriched themselves 
by the enforced labor of the unfortunate natives. Unused to such toil as was 
exacted of them under the lash of worse than Egyptian task-masters, the 
Indians wasted away by millions in the mines of Mexico and Peru, and upon 
the sugar plantations of the West Indies. More than half of the native popu- 
lation of Peru is thought to have been consumed in the Peruvian mines. To 
save the Indians, negroes were introduced as a substitute for native laborers. 
This was the beginning of the African slave-trade in the New World. The 
traffic was especially encouraged by a benevolent priest named Las Casas 
(1474-1566), known as the "Apostle of the Indians." Thus the gigantic 
evil of African slavery in the Western Hemisphere, like the gladiatorial 
shows of the Romans, was brought into existence, or, rather, in its beginning 
was fostered, by a philanthropic desire and effort to mitigate human suffering. 



FIRST PERIOD. — THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT 
REFORMATION. 

(FROM THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648.) 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION UNDER LUTHER. 

General Statement. — We have already indicated (see pp. 
366-7), the two periods of modern history; namely, the Era of 
the Protestant Reforination and the Era of the Political Revolution. 
We need here simply to remind the reader that the first period, 
extending from the opening of the sixteenth century to the Peace 
of Westphalia in 1648, is characterized by the revolt of the nations 
of Northern Europe against the spiritual jurisdiction of Rome, and 
the great combat between Protestantism and Catholicism ; and 
that the second period, running from the Peace of Westphalia to 
our own day, is distinguished by the contest between the people 
and their rulers, or, in other words, by the conflict between liberal 
and despotic principles of government. 

We shall now proceed to speak of the causes and general feat- 
ures of the Reformation, and in succeeding chapters shall follow 
its fortunes in the various countries of Europe. 

Extent of Rome's Spiritual Authority at the Opening of the 
Sixteenth Century. — In a preceding chapter on the Papacy it 
was shown how perfect at one time was the obedience of the West, 
not only to the spiritual, but to the temporal, authority of the 
Pope. It was also shown how the papal claim of the right to 
dictate in temporal or governmental affairs was practically rejected 



520 THE REFORMATION. 

by the princes and sovereigns of Europe as early as the fourteenth 
century (see p. 458). But previous to the opening of the sixteenth 
century there had been comparatively few — though there had 
been some, like the Albigenses in the South of France, the Wick- 
liffites in England, and the Hussites in Bohemia — who denied the 
supreme and infallible authority of the bishops of Rome in all 
matters touching religion. Speaking in a very general manner, 
it would be correct to say that at the close of the fifteenth century 
all the nations of Western Europe professed the faith of the Latin, 
or Roman Catholic Church, and yielded spiritual obedience to 
the Papal See. 

Causes of the Reformation. — We must now seek the causes 
which led one-half of the nations of Europe to secede, as it were, 
from the Roman Catholic Church. The causes were many. 
Among others may be mentioned the great mental awakening 
which marked the close of the mediaeval and the opening of the 
modern age ; for the intellectual revival, though often spoken of, 
in so fai" as it concerned the Northern nations, as an effect of the 
religious revival, was in reality at once cause and effect. It 
hastened the Reformation, and was itself hastened by it. And in 
connection with the Revival of Learning must be mentioned the 
invention of printing as a powerful agency in the promotion of the 
religious movement. The press scattered broadcast over Europe, 
not only the Bible, but the writings of the men who had begun to 
doubt the scriptural authority for many of the doctrines and cere- 
monies of the Church, — such as the adoration of the Virgin, the 
invoking of saints, the use of images, confession to a priest, and the 
nature of the elements in the Eucharist. These writings of course 
stirred up debate, and led to questioning and criticism. 

A second cause was the existence of most serious scandals and 
abuses in the Church. During the fifteenth century, the morality 
of the Church was probably lower than at any other period in its 
history. The absolute necessity of its thorough reform in both 
'' head and members " was recognized by all earnest and spiritual- 
minded men. The only difference of opinion among such was 



CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION. 521 

as to the manner in which the work of purification should be 
effected. 

A third cause may be found in the claims of the Popes to the 
right to interfere in the internal, governmental affairs of a nation ; 
for, although these claims had been rejected by the sovereigns of 
Europe, they were nevertheless still maintained by the Roman 
bishops, and this caused the temporal princes to regard with great 
jealousy the papal power. 

But foremost among the proximate causes, and the actual 
occasion of the revolution, was the controversy which arose about 
the doctrine of indulgences. These were remissions of punish- 
ment granted to persons who preferred to pay a sum of money 
rather than perform the penances imposed upon them by the 
Church. It is, and always has been, the theory of the Catholic 
Church, that the indulgence remits merely temporal penalties, — 
that is, penalties imposed by ecclesiastical authority, and the pains 
of Purgatory, — and that it can take effect only upon certain con- 
ditions, among which is that of sincere repentance. Indulgences 
were frequently granted by various pontiffs, as a means of raising 
funds for pious enterprises. A considerable portion of the money 
for building the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome was raised in this 
manner. 

Tetzel and the Preaching of Indulgences. — Leo X., upon his 
election to the papal dignity, in 15 13, found the coffers of the 
Church almost empty ; and, being in pressing need of money to 
carry on his various undertakings, among which was work upon 
St. Peter's, he had recourse to the then common expedient of a 
grant of indulgences. He delegated the power of dispensing these 
in Germany to the archbishop of Magdeburg, who employed a 
Dominican friar by the name of Tetzel as his deputy in Saxony. 

The archbishop was unfortunate in the selection of his agent. 
Tetzel carried out his commission in such a way as to give rise to 
great scandal. The language that he, or at least his subordinates, 
used, in exhorting the people to comply with the conditions of 
gaining the indulgences, one of which was a donation of money. 



522 



THE REFORMATION. 



was unseemly and exaggerated. The result was that erroneous 
views as to the effect of indulgences began to spread among the 
simple and credulous, some being so far misled as to think that if 
they only contributed this money to the building of St. Peter's at 
Rome they would be exempt from all penalty for sins, paying little 
heed to the other conditions, such as sorrow for sin, and purpose 
of amendment. Hence, many were led to declaim against the 
procedure of the zealous friar. These protests were the near 
mutterings of a storm that had long been gathering, and that was 
soon to shake all Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. 

Martin Luther. — Foremost among those who opposed and 
denounced Tetzel was Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustine 

monk, and a teacher of the- 






WW 



i; 



fS" 







ology in the university of 
Wittenberg. He was of 
humble parentage, his fa- 
ther being a poor miner. 

m;ii',i\i;i;i''|liii^^^^^^ The boy possessed a good 

1' !;■ ■,.i:i.'''i;i' 



m 

ill iiii 



voice, and frequently, while 
a student, earned his bread 
|i by singing from door to 
door. The natural bent of 
his mind, and, if we may 
believe a somewhat doubt- 
ful legend, the death of a 
friend struck down at his 
side by lightning, led him 
to resolve to enter a mon- 
astery and devote himself 
to the service of the Church. 

Before Tetzel appeared in Germany, Luther had already earned 

a wide reputation for learning and piety. 

The Ninety-five Theses. — The form which Church penances 

had taken in the hands of Tetzel and his associates, together with 

other circumstances, awakened in Luther's mind doubts and ques- 



MARTIN LUTHER. 



THE PAPAL BULL. 523 

tionings as to many of the doctrines of the Church. Especially 
was there gradually maturing within him a conviction that the 
entire system of ecclesiastical penances and indulgences was un- 
scriptural and wrong. His last lingering doubt respecting this 
matter appears to have been removed while, during an official 
visit to Rome in 1510, he was penitentially ascending on his knees 
the sacred stairs {scala santa) of the Lateran, when he seemed 
to hear an inner voice declaring, "The just shall hve by faith." 

At length Luther drew up ninety-five theses, or articles, wherein 
he fearlessly stated his views respecting indulgences. These 
theses, written in Latin, he nailed to the door of the church at 
Wittenberg, and invited all scholars to examine and criticise them, 
and to point out if in any respect they were opposed to the teach- 
ings of the Word of God, or of the early Fathers of the Church 
(15 1 7). By means of the press the theses were scattered with 
incredible rapidity throughout every country in Europe. 

Burning of the Papal Bull (1520). — All the continent was now 
plunged into a perfect tumult of controversy. Luther, growing 
bolder, was soon attacking the entire system and body of teachings 
of the Roman CathoUc Church. At first the Pope, Leo X., was in- 
chned to regard the whole matter as " a mere squabble of monks," 
but at length he felt constrained to issue a bull against the auda- 
cious reformer (1520). His writings were condemned as heretical, 
and all persons were forbidden to read them ; and he himself, if he 
did not recant his errors within sixty days, was to be seized and 
dehvered to the Church for punishment. Luther in reply publicly JBt^ 
burned the papal bull at one of the gates of Wittenberg. ^^^^ 

The Diet of Worms (15 21). — Leo now invoked the aid of 
the recently elected Emperor Charles the Fifth in extirpating the 
spreading heresy. The emperor complied by summoning Luther 
before the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the princes, nobles, 
and clergy of Germany, convened at Worms to deliberate upon 
the affairs of Germany, and especially upon matters touching 
the great religious controversy. 

Called upon in the Imperial assembly to recant his errors, Luther 



524 THE REFORMATION. 

Steadily refused to do so, unless his teachings could be shown to 
be inconsistent with the Bible. Although some wished to deliver 
the reformer to the flames, the safe-conduct of the emperor under 
which he had come to the Diet protected him. So Luther was 
allowed to depart in safety, but was followed by a decree of the 
assembly which pronounced him a heretic and an outlaw. 

But Luther had powerful friends among the princes of Germany, 
one of whom was his own prince, Frederick the Wise, Elector of 
Saxony. Solicitous for the safety of the reformer, the prince 
caused him to be seized on his way from the Diet by a company 
of masked horsemen, who carried him to the castle of the Wart- 
burg, where he was kept about a year, his retreat being known 
only to a few friends. During this period of forced retirement 
from the world, Luther was hard at work upon his celebrated 
translation of the Bible. 

The Peasants' War (15 24-15 25). — Before quite a year had 
passed, Luther was called from the Wartburg by the troubles 
caused by a new sect that had appeared, known as the Anabap- 
tists, whose excesses were casting great discredit upon the whole 
reform movement. Luther's sudden appearance at Wittenberg 
gave a temporary check to the agitation. 

But in the course of two or three years the trouble broke out 
afresh, and in a more complex and aggravated form. The peas- 
ants of Suabia and Franconia, stung to madness by the oppres- 
sions of their feudal lords, stirred by the religious excitement that 
filled the air, and influenced by the incendiary preaching of their 
prophets Carlstadt and Miinzer, rose in revolt against the nobles 
and priests. Castles and monasteries were sacked and burned, 
and horrible outrages were committed. The rebellion was at 
length crushed, but not until one hundred thousand lives had been 
sacrificed, a large part of South Germany ravaged, and great 
reproach cast upon the reformers, whose teachings were held by 
their enemies to be the whole cause of the ferment. 

The Reformers are called Protestants. — Notwithstanding all 
the efforts that were made to suppress the doctrines of Luther, 



PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION CHECKED. 525 

they gained ground rapidly, and in the year 1529 another assembly, 
known as the Second Diet of Spires, was called to consider the 
matter. This body issued an edict forbidding all persons doing 
anything to promote the spread of the new doctrines, until a gen- 
eral council of the Church should have investigated them and 
pronounced authoritatively upon them. Seven of the German 
princes, and a large number of the cities of the empire, issued a 
formal protest against the action of the Diet. Because of this 
protest, the reformers from this time began to be known as 
Protestants. 

Causes that checked the Progress of the Reformation. — Even 
before the death of Luther,^ which occurred in the year 1546, the 
Reformation had gained a strong foothold in most of the countries 
of Western Christendom, save in Spain and Italy, and even in 
these parts the new doctrines had made some progress. It seemed 
as if the revolt from Rome was destined to become universal, and 
the old ecclesiastical empire to be completely broken up. 

But several causes now conspired to check the hitherto trium- 
phant advance of Protestantism, and to confine the movement 
to the Northern nations. Chief among these were the divisions 
among the Protestants, the Catholic counter-reform, the increased 
activity of the Inquisition., and the rise of the Order of the Jesuits. 

Divisions among the Protestants. — Early in their contest with 
Rome, the Protestants became divided into numerous hostile 
sects. In Switzerland arose the Zwinglians (followers of Ulrich 
Zwingle, 1484- 1531), who differed from the Lutherans in their 
views regarding the Eucharist, and on some other points of doc- 
trine. The Calvinists were followers of John Calvin (1509- 
1564), a Frenchman by birth, who, forced to flee from France 

1 After the death of Luther, the leadership of the Reformation in Germany 
fell to Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), one of Luther's friends and fellow- 
workers. Melanchthon's disposition was exactly the opposite of Luther's. 
He often reproved Luther for his indiscretion and vehemence, and was con- 
stantly laboring to effect, through mutual concessions, a reconciliation between 
the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. 



526 



THE REFORMATION. 




on account of persecution, found a refuge at Geneva, of which 
city he became a sort of Protestant pope.^ 

The great Protestant communions quickly broke up into a large 

number of denominations, or 
churches, each holding to some 
minor point of doctrine, or 
adhering to some form of wor- 
ship disregarded by the others, 
yet all agreeing in the central 
doctrine of the Reformation, 
"Justification by faith." 

Now the contentions between 
these different sects were sharp 
and bitter. The liberal-minded 
reformer had occasion to la- 
ment the same state of things 
as that which ^i'oubled the apos- 
tle Paul in the early days of 
Christianity. One said, I am 
of Luther ; another said, I am of Calvin ; and another said, I 
am of Zwingle. Even Luther himself denounced Zwingle as a 
heretic ; and the Calvinists would have no dealings with the 
Lutherans. 

The influence of these sectarian divisions upon the progress of 
the Reformation was most disastrous. They afforded the Catho- 
lics a strong and effective argument against the entire movement 
as tending to uncertainty and discord. 

The Catholic Counter-Reform. — While the Protestants were 
thus breaking up into numerous rival sects, the Catholics were 
removing the causes of dissension within the old Church by a 

1 Calvin was, next after Luther, the greatest of the reformers. The doc- 
trines of Calvin came to prevail very widely, and have exerted a most remark- 
able influence upon the general course of history. "The Huguenots of France, 
the Covenanters of Scotland, the Puritans of England, the Pilgrim Fathers of 
New England, were all the offspring of Calvinism." 



JOHN CALVIN. 



THE INQUISITION. 527 

thorough reform in its head and members, and by a clear and 
authoritative restatement of the doctrines of the Cathohc faith. 
This was accompHshed very largely by the labors of the celebrated 
Council of Trent ( 1545-15 63). The correction of the abuses 
that had so much to do in causing the great schism, smoothed 
the way for the return to the ancient Church of thousands who had 
become alarmed at the dangers into which society seemed to drift 
when once it cast loose from anchorage in the safe harbor of tra- 
dition and authority. 

The Inquisition. — The Roman Catholic Church having puri- 
fied itself and defined clearly its articles of faith, demanded of all 
a more implicit obedience than hitherto. The Inquisition, or 
Holy Office (see p. 500), now assumed new vigor and activity^ and 
heresy was sternly dealt with. The tribunal was assisted in the 
execution of its sentences by the secular authorities in all the 
Romance countries, but outside of these it was not generally recog- 
nized by the temporal princes, though it did succeed in estabhsh- 
ing itself for a time in the Nethei-lands and in some parts of 
Germany. Death, usually by burning, and loss of property were the 
penalty of obstinate heresy. Without doubt the Holy Office did 
much to check the advance of the Reformation in Southern 
Europe, aiding especially in holding Italy and Spain compactly 
obedient to the ancient Church. 

At this point, in connection with the persecutions of the Inqui- 
sition, we should not fail to recall that in the sixteenth century a 
refusal to conform to the established worship was regarded by all, 
by Protestants as well as by Catholics, as a species of treason 
against society, and was dealt with accordingly. Thus we find 
Calvin at Geneva consenting to the burning of Serve tus (1553), 
because he published views that the Calvinists thought heretical ; 
and in England we see the Anglican Protestants waging the most 
cruel, bitter, and persistent persecutions, not only against the 
Catholics, but also against all Protestants that refused to con- 
form to the Established Church. 

The Jesuits. — The Order of Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, was 



528 



THE REFORMATION. 




LOYOLA ^From a medal.) 



another most powerful agent concerned in the re-estabhshment of 
the threatened authority of the Papal See. The founder of the 
institution was St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), a native of Spain. 

Loyola's object was to form a so- 
ciety, the devotion and energy of 
whose numbers should counteract 
the zeal and activity of the re- 
formers. 

As the well-discipHned, watch- 
ful, and uncompromising foes of 
the Protestant reformers, now di- 
vided into many and often hostile 
sects, the Jesuits did very much 
to bring about a reaction, to 
retrieve the failing fortunes of the 
papal power in Europe, and to extend the authority and doctrines 
of the Roman Catholic Church in all other parts of the world. 
Most distinguished of the missionaries of the order to pagan lands 
was Francis Xavier (1506-15 6 2), known as the Apostle of the 
Indies. His labors in India, Japan, and other lands of the East 
were attended with astonishing results. 

Outcome of the Revolt. — As in following chapters we are to 
trace the fortunes of the Reformation in the leading European 
countries, we shall here say only a word as to the issue of the 
great contest. 

The outcome of the revolt, very broadly stated, was the separa- 
tion from the Roman Cathohc Church of the Northern, or Teu- 
tonic nations ; that is to say, of Northern Germany, of portions of 
Switzerland and of the Netherlands, of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 
England, and Scotland. The Romance nations, namely, Italy, 
France and Spain, together with Celtic Ireland, adhered to the 
old Church. 

What this separation from Rome meant in the pohtical realm is 
well stated by Seebohm : '^ It was the claiming by the civil power 
in each nation of those rights which the Pope had hitherto claimed 



OUTCOME OF THE REVOLT. 529 

within it as head of the great ecclesiastical empire. The clergy 
and monks had hitherto been regarded more or less as foreigners — 
that is, as subjects of the Pope's ecclesiastical empire. Where 
there was a revolt from Rome the allegiance of these persons to 
the Pope was annulled, and the civil power claimed as full a sover- 
eignty over them as it had over its lay subjects. Matters relating 
to marriage and wills still for the most part remained under eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction, but then, as the ecclesiastical courts them- 
selves became national courts and ceased to be Roman or papal, 
all these matters came under the control of the civil power." 

In a spiritual or religious point of view, this severance by the 
Northern nations of the bonds that formerly united them to the 
ecclesiastical empire of Rome, meant a transfer of their allegiance 
from the Church to the Bible. The decrees of Popes and the 
decisions of Councils were no longer to be regarded as having 
divine and binding force ; the Scriptures alone were to be held as 
possessing divine and infallible authority, and, theoretically, this 
rule and standard of faith and practice each one was to interpret 
for himself. 

Thus one-half of Western Christendom was lost to the Roman 
Church. Yet notwithstanding this loss, notwithstanding the earlier 
loss of the Eastern part of Christendom (see p. 417), and not- 
withstanding the fact that its temporal power has been entirely 
taken from it, the Papacy still remains, as Macaulay says, " not a 
mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor." The Pope is 
to-day the supreme and infallible Plead of a Church that, in the 
words of the brilliant writer just quoted, " was great and respected 
before Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed 
the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch, 
when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And 
she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveller from 
New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand 
on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. 
Paul's." 




530 THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 
I. Reign of the Emperor Charles V. (151 9- 1556). 

Charles' Dominions. — Charles I. of Spain, better known to 
fame as Emperor Charles V., was the son of Philip the Handsomej 
Archduke of Austria, and Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella of Spain. He was " the converging point and heir of four 
great royal lines, which had become united by a series of happy 
matrimonial alliances." These were the houses of Austria, Bur- 
gundy, Castile, and Aragon. Before Charles had completed his 
nineteenth year, there were heaped upon his head, through the 
removal of his ancestors by death, the crowns of the four dy- 
nasties. 

But vast as were the hereditary possessions of the young prince, 
there was straightway added to these (in 15 19), by the vote of 
the Electors of Germany, the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Em- 
pire. After this election he was known as Emperor Charles V., 
whereas hitherto he had borne the title of Don Carlos I. of Spain. 

Charles and the Reformation. — It is Charles' relations to the 
Lutheran movement which constitute the significant feature of his 
life and work. Here his policies and acts concerned universal 
history. It would hardly be asserting too much to say that 
Charles, at the moment he ascended the Imperial throne, held in 
his hands the fortunes of the Reformation, so far as regards the 
countries of Southern Europe. Whether these were to be saved 
to Rome or not, seemed at this time to depend largely upon the 
attitude which Charles should assume towards the reform move- 
ment. Fortunately for the Catholic Church, the young emperor 
placed himself at the head of the Catholic party, and during his 



CHARLES' TWO CHIEF ENEMIES. 531 

reign employed the strength and resources of his empire in repress- 
ing the heresy of the reformers. 

His Two Chief Enemies. — Had Charles been free from the 
outset to devote all his energies to the work of suppressing the 
Lutheran heresy, it is difficult to see what could have saved the re- 
form doctrines within his dominions from total extirpation. But 
fortunately for the cause of the reformers, Charles' attention, 
during all the first part of his reign, was drawn away from the 
serious consideration of Church questions, by the attacks upon his 
dominions of two of the most powerful monarchs of the times, — 
Francis I. (1515-1547) of France, and Solyman th^ Magnificent 
(15 20-15 66), Sultan of Turkey. Whenever Charles was inclined 
to proceed to severe measures against the Protestant princes of 
Germany, the threatening movements of one or both of these 
enemies, at times acting in concert and alliance, forced him to 
postpone his proposed crusade against heretics for a campaign 
against foreign foes. 

Rivalry and Wars between Charles and Francis^ (1521- 
1544). — Francis I. was the rival of Charles in the contest for 
Imperial honors. When the Electors conferred the title of em- 
peror upon the Spanish monarch, Francis was sorely disappointed, 
and during all the remainder of his reign kept up a jealous and 
almost incessant warfare with Charles, whose enormous posses- 
sions now nearly surrounded the French kingdom. Italy was the 
field of much of the fighting, as the securing of dominion in that 
peninsula was the chief aim of each of the rivals. 

The so-called First War between Francis and the emperor was 
full of misfortunes for Francis. His army was driven out of North- 
ern Italy by the Imperial forces ; his most skilful and trusted 
commander, the Constable of Bourbon, turned traitor and went 

^ Table of Wars : — 

First War (ended by Peace I Third War (ended by 

of Madrid) 1521-1526 Truce of Nice) . . . 1536-1538 

Second War (ended by I Fourth War (ended by 

Ladies' Peace) . . . 1527-1529 | Peace of Crespy) . . 1542-1544 



532 THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 

over to Charles, and another of his most vahant nobles, the cele- 
brated Chevalier Bayard, the knight sans peur^ sans reproche, 
"without fear and without reproach," was killed ; while, to crown 
all, Francis himself, after suffering a crushing defeat at Pavia, in 
Italy, was wounded and taken prisoner. In his letter to his 
mother informing her of the disaster, he is said to have laconically 
written, "All is lost save honor." He was liberated by the Peace 
of Madrid (1526). 

The most memorable incident of the Second War between the 
king and the emperor, was the sack of Rome by an Imperial army, 
made up chiefly of Lutherans. Rome had not witnessed such 
scenes since the terrible days of the Goth and Vandal. 

In the Third War Francis shocked all Christendom by forming 
an alliance with the Turkish Sultan, who ravaged with his fleets 
the Italian coasts, and sold his plunder and captives in the port of 
Marseifles. Thus was a Christian city shamefully opened to the 
Moslems as a refuge and a slave-market. 

The Fourth War, which was the last between the rivals, left 
their respective possessions substantially the same as at the begin- 
ning of the strife, in 1 5 2 1 . 

Disastrous Effects of the Wars. — The results of these royal 
contentions had been extremely calamitous. For a quarter of a 
century they had kept nearly all Europe in a perfect turmoil, and 
by preventing alliances of the Christian states, had been the occa- 
sion of the severe losses which Christendom during this period 
suffered at the hands of the Turks. Hungary had been ravaged 
with fire and sword ; Rhodes had been captured from the Knights 
of St. John ; and all the Mediterranean shores pillaged, and thou- 
sands of Christian captives chained to the oars of Turkish galleys.^ 

1 The worst feature of this advance of the Saltan's authority in the Mediter- 
ranean was the growth, under his protection, of the power of the Algerian 
pirates. One of the chief strongholds of the pirates on the African coast was 
Tunis, which was held by the famous Barbarossa. In the interval between 
his second and third wars with Francis, Charles, with a large army and fleet, 
made an assault upon this place, defeated the corsair, and set free 20,000 



PERSECUTIONS. 533 

Persecution of the French Protestants by Francis. — The 

cessation of the wars between Francis and Charles left each free 
to give his attention to his heretical subjects. And both had work 
enough on hand ; for while the king and the emperor had been 
fighting each other, the doctrines of the reformers had been 
spreading rapidly in all directions and among all classes. 

The severest blow dealt by Henry against the heretics of his 
kingdom fell upon the Vaudois, or Waldenses/ the inhabitants of 
a number of hamlets in Piedmont and Provence. Thousands were 
put to death by the sword, thousands more were burned at the 
stake, and the land was reduced to a wilderness. Only a miser- 
able remnant, who found an asylum among the mountains, were 
left to hand down their faith to later times. 

Charles' Wars with the Protestant German Princes. — 
Charles, on his part, turned his attention to the reformers in 
Germany. Inspired by religious motives and convictions, and 
apprehensive, further, of the effect upon his authority in Germany 
of the growth there of a confederacy of the Protestant princes, 
known as the League of Schmalkald, Charles resolved to suppress 
the reform movement by force. He was at first successful, but in 
the end, the war proved the most disastrous and humiliating to 
him of any in which he had engaged. Successive defeats of his 
armies forced him to give up his undertaking to make all his 
German subjects think alike in matters of rehgion. 

The Religious Peace of Augsburg^ (i555)- — In the celebrated 
Diet of Augsburg, convened in 1555 to compose the distracted 
affairs of the German states, it was arranged and agreed that every 
prince should be allowed to choose between the Catholic religion 

Christian captives. For this brilliant and knightly achievement, the emperor 
received great applause throughout Europe.- Just after his third war with 
Francis, the emperor made an unsuccessful and most disastrous assault upon 
Algiers, another stronghold of the corsairs. 

1 So called from the founder of the sect, Peter Waldo, or Pierre de Vaux, 
who lived about the beginning of the thirteenth century. 



534 THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 

and the Augsburg Confession,^ and should have the right to make 
his rehgion the worship of his people. This, it will be noted, was 
simply toleration as concerns princes or governments. The people 
individually had no freedom of choice ; every subject must follow 
his prince, and think and believe as he thought and believed. 
Of course, this was no real toleration. 

Even to the article of toleration as stated above, the Diet made 
one important exception. The Catholics insisted that ecclesiastical 
princes, i.e., bishops and abbots who were heads of states, on 
becoming Protestants, should lose their offices and revenues ; and 
this provision, under the name of the Ecclesiastical Reservation, 
was finally made a part of the treaty. This was a most fortunate 
article for the Catholics. 

Abdication and Death of Charles. — While the Diet of Augs- 
burg was arranging the Religious Peace, the Emperor Charles was 
enacting the part of a second Diocletian (see p. 331). There had 
long been forming in his mind the purpose of spending his last 
_ days in monastic seclusion. The disap- 
liQii^^^l 9 pointing issue of his contest with the Prot- 
ilS3-^t.^HL il ^stant princes of Germany, the weight of 
msJI^^t^fflBBH advancing years, together with menacing 
IbiiB^HH^P troubles which began " to thicken like dark 
HH^^^^^^' clouds about the evening of his reign," 
W^KBI^Kf/ ^*^^ ^^^ ^^^ emperor to carry this reso- 
lution into effect. Accordingly he abdi- 

PEROR CHARLES THE ^^^^^ -^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^.^ ^^^ pj^.j. ^^^ ^^^^^ 
FIFTH. ^ 

, , , . , of the Netherlands ( I c;cc;) and that of Spain 

(After a painting by Angel ^ \ joujj it 

Lizcano.) and its colonies (1556), and then retired 

to the monastery of San Yuste, situated in 
a secluded region in the western part of Spain (1556). 

In his retreat at Yuste, Charles passed the remaining short term 
of his life in participating with the monks in the exercises of relig- 

1 The " Augsburg Confession " was the formula of belief of the adherents of 
Luther. It was drawn up by the scholar Melanchthon, and laid before the 
Imperial Diet assembled at Augsburg by Charles V. in 15 30. 



EM 



DEATH OF CHARLES V. 535 

ion, and in watching the current of events without ; for Charles 
never lost interest in the affairs of the empire over which he had 
ruled, and Philip constantly had the benefit of his father's wisdom 
and experience. 

There is a tradition which tells how Charles, after vainly en- 
deavoring to make some clocks that he had about him at Yuste 
run together, made the following reflection : " How foolish I have 
been to think I could make all men believe ahke about religion, 
when here I cannot make even two clocks keep the same time." 

This story is probably mythical. Charles seems never to have 
doubted either the practicability or the policy of securing unifor- 
mity of belief by force. While in retirement at Yuste, he ex- 
pressed the deepest regret that he did not burn Luther at Worms. 
He was constantly urging Philip to use greater severity in dealing 
with his heretical subjects, and could scarcely restrain himself from 
leaving his retreat, in order to engage personally in the work of 
extirpating the pestilent doctrines, which he heard were spreading 
in Spain. 

2. Spain under Philip H. (1556-1598). 

Philip's Domains. — With the abdication of Charles V. the 
Imperial crown passed out of the Spanish line of the House of 
Hapsburg.^ Yet the dominions of Philip were scarcely less exten- 
sive than those over which his father had ruled. All the hereditary 
possessions of the Spanish crown were of course his. Then just 
before his father's abdication gave him these domains, he had 
become king-consort of England by marriage with Mary Tudor. 
And about the middle of his reign he conquered Portugal and 
added to his empire that kingdom and its rich dependencies in 
Africa and the East Indies, — an acquisition which more than 
made good to the Spanish crown the loss of the Imperial dignity. 
After this accession of territory, Philip's sovereignty was acknowl- 
edged by more than 100,000,000 persons — probably as large a 

1 The Imperial crown went to Charles' brother, Ferdinand, of Austria. 



536 THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 

number as was embraced within the limits of the Roman empire 
at the time of its greatest extension. 

But notwithstanding that PhiHp's dominions were so extensive, 
his resources enormous, and many of the outward circumstances 
of his reign striking and brilhant, there were throughout the period 
causes at work which were rapidly undermining the greatness of 
Spain and preparing her fall By wasteful wars and extravagant 
buildings Philip managed to dissipate the royal treasures ; and. by 
his tyrannical course in respect of his Moorish, Jewish, and Prot- 
estant subjects, he ruined the industries of the most flourishing of 
the provinces of Spain, and drove the Netherlands into a desperate 
revolt, which ended in the separation of the most valuable of those 
provinces from the Spanish crown. 

As the most important matters of Philip's reign — namely, his 
war against the revolted Netherlands, and his attempt upon Eng- 
land with his "Invincible Armada" — belong more properly to 
the respective histories of England and the Netherlands, and will 
be treated of in connection with the affairs of those countries (see 
pp. 558, 564), we shall give here only a very little space to the 
history of the period. 

Philip's War with France. — Philip took up his father's quarrel 
with France. He was aided by the English, who were persuaded 
to this step by their queen, Mary Tudor, now the wife of the 
Spanish sovereign. Fortune favored Philip. The French were 
defeated in two great battles, and were forced to agree to the 
terms of a treaty (Peace of Cateau-Cambresis, 1559) so advan- 
tageous to Spain as to give Philip great distinction in the eyes of 
all Europe. 

Philip's Crusade against the Moors. — It will be recalled that 
after the conquest of Granada the Moors were still allowed the 
exercise of their religion (see p. 499). Philip conceived it to be 
his duty to impose upon them conditions that should thoroughly 
obliterate all traces of their ancient faith and manners. So he 
issued a decree that the Moors should no longer use their native 
tongue ; and that they should give their children Christian names, 



DEFEAT OF THE TURKISH FLEET. 537 

and send them to Christian schools. A determined revolt fol- 
lowed. Phihp repressed the uprising with terrible severity (15 71). 
The fairest provinces of Spain were almost depopulated, and large 
districts relapsed into primeval wilderness. 

Defeat of the Turkish Fleet at Lepanto (15 71). — Philip ren- 
dered an eminent service to civilization in helping to stay the prog- 
ress of the Turks in the Mediterranean. They had captured the 
important island of Cyprus, and had assaulted the Hospitallers at 
Malta,^ which island had been saved from falling into the hands 
of the infidels only by the splendid conduct of the knights. All 
Christendom was becoming alarmed. Pope Pius V. called upon 
the princes of Europe to rally to the defence of the Church. An 
alliance was formed, embracing the Pope, the Venetians, and 
Philip IL An immense fleet was equipped, and put under the 
command of Don John of Austria, Philip's half-brother, a young 
general whose consummate ability had been recently displayed in 
the crusade against the Moors. 

The Christian fleet met the Turkish squadron in the Gulf of 
Lepanto, on the western coast of Greece. The battle was un- 
equalled by anything the Mediterranean had seen since the naval 
encounters of the Romans and Carthaginians in the First Punic 
War. More than 600 ships and 200,000 men mingled in the 
struggle. The Ottoman fleet was almost totally destroyed. Thou- 
sands of Christian captives, who were found chained to the oars 
of the Turkish galleys, were liberated. AU Christendom rejoiced 
as when Jerusalem was captured by the first crusaders. 

The battle of Lepanto holds an important place in history, be- 
cause it marks the turning-point of the long struggle between the 
Mohammedans and the Christians, which had now been going on 
for nearly one thousand years. The Ottoman Turks, though they 
afterwards made progress in some quarters, never recovered the 

1 After the knights had been driven from the island of Rhodes by the 
Turks (see p. 532), Charles gave the survivors of the Order the island of 
Malta (1530). 



538 THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 

prestige they lost in that disaster, and their authority and power 
thenceforward steadily declined.^ 

The Death of Philip : Later Events. — In the year 1588 Phihp 
made his memorable attempt with the so-called " Invincible Ar- 
mada" upon England, at this time the stronghold of Protestantism. 
As we shall see a little later, he failed utterly in the undertaking 
(see p. 558). Ten years after this he died in the palace of the 
Escurial. With his death closed that splendid era of Spanish 
history which began with the discovery of the New World by 
Columbus. From this time forward the nation steadily declined 
in power, reputation, and influence. 

Thus, under Philip III. (1598-1621), a severe loss, and one 
from which they never recovered, was inflicted upon the manu- 
factures and various other industries of Spain, by the expulsion of 
the Moors, or Moriscoes. More than half a million of the most 
intelligent, skilful, and industrious inhabitants of the Peninsula 
were driven into exile. And then in 1609, the Protestant Nether- 
lands, whose revolt against the tyranny of Philip II. has been 
mentioned, virtually achieved their independence (see p. 570). 
In the secession of these provinces the Spanish crown lost her 
most valuable possessions, and she now sank rapidly to the posi- 
tion of a third or fourth rate power.^ 

1 After the battle of Lepanto the next most critical moment in the history 
of the Turkish conquests was in 1683. In that year the Turks besieged Vienna, 
and had all but secured the prize, when the city was relieved by the distin- 
guished Polish general Sobieski. 

2 The loss of the Netherlands was followed in 1639 by the loss of Portugal. 
During the latter part of the seventeenth century Spain was involved in dis- 
astrous wars with France, and suffered a decline of ,8,000,000 in her population. 
After the revolt of her American colonies, in the early part of the present 
century; and her cession to the United States of Florida (in 1819), Spain was 
almost shorn — she still held Cuba and a few other patches of territory scat- 
tered about the world — of those rich and magnificent colonial possessions 
which had been her pride in the time of her ascendency. 

, \ 



THE TUDOR PERIOD. 539 



CHAPTER L. 

THE TUDORS AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

(1485-1603.) 
I. Introductory. 

The Tudor Period. — The Tudor period^ in English history 
covers the sixteenth century, and overlaps a little the preceding 
and the following century. It was an eventful and stirring time for 
the English people. It witnessed among them great progress in 
art, science, and trade, and a literary outburst such as the world 
had not seen since the best days of Athens. But the great event 
of the period was the Reformation. It was under the Tudors 
that England was severed from the spiritual empire of Rome, and 
Protestantism firmly established in the island. To tell how these" 
great results were effected will be our chief aim in the present 
chapter. 

The English Reformation first a Revolt and then a Reform. — 
The Reformation in England was, more distinctly than elsewhere, 
a double movement. First, England was separated violently from 
the ecclesiastical empire of Rome. All papal and priestly authority 
was cast off, but without any essential change being made in creed 
or mode of worship. This was accomplished under Henry VIII. 

Secondly, the English Church, thus rendered independent of 
Rome, gradually changed its creed and ritual. This was effected 
chiefly under Edward VI. So the movement v/as first a revolt and 
then a reform. 

The Revival of Learning in England. — The soil in England 

1 The Tudor sovereigns were Henry VII. (1485-1509) ; Henry VIII. (1509- 
1547); Edward VI. (i 547-1 553); Mary (1553-1558) ; and Elizabeth (1558- 
1603). 



540 



THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 



was, in a considerable measure, prepared for the seed of the 
Reformation by the labors of the Humanists (see p. 474). Three 
men stand preeminent as lovers and promoters of the New Learn- 
ing. Their names are Colet, Erasmus, and More. 

Colet was leader and master of the little band. His generous 
enthusiasm was kindled at Florence, in Italy. It was an impor- 
tant event in the history of the Reformation when Colet crossed 
the Alps to learn Greek at the feet of the Greek exiles ; for on 
his return to England he brought back with him not only an in- 
creased love for classical learning, but a fervent zeal for religious 

reform, inspired, it would seem, by 
the stirring eloquence of Savona- 
rola (see. p. 511). 

Erasmus was probably superior in 
classical scholarship to any stu- 
dent of his times. " He bought 
Greek books first, and clothes after- 
wards." His Greek testam.ent, pub- 
Hshed in 15 16, was one of the most 
powerful agents concerned in bring- 
ing about the Reformation. Indeed, 
his relation to the reform movement 
is well indicated by the charge made 
against him by the enemies of the 
Reformation, who declared that 
" Erasmus laid the ^gg, and Luther hatched it." 

Thomas More was drawn, or rather forced, into political life, 
and of him and his writings we shall have occasion to speak here- 
after, in connection with the reign of Henry VIII. (see p. 549). 

The Lollards. — Another special preparation for the entrance 
into England of the Reformation was the presence among the 
lower classes there of a considerable body of Lollards (see p. 
491). Persecution had driven the sect into obscurity, but had 
not been able to extirpate the heresy. In holding the Scriptures 
as the sole rule of faith, and in the maintenance of other doctrines 




ERASMUS. 



UNION OF THE ROSES. 541 

denounced by the Roman Catholic Church, the Lollards occupied 
a position similar to that held by the German reformers, and con- 
sequently, when the teachings of Luther were disseminated in 
England, they received them gladly. 

2. The Reign of Henry VIL (1485-1509). 

The Union of the Roses. — Henry VIL and his queen united 
the long-disputed titles of the two Roses ^ (see p. 488) ; but the 
bitter feelings engendered by the contentions of the rival families 
still existed. Particularly was there much smothered discontent 
among the Yorkists, which manifested itself in two attempts to 
place impostors upon the throne, both of which, however, were 
unsuccessful. 

Benevolences. — Avarice and a love of despotic rule were Hen- 
ry's chief faults. Much of his attention was given to heaping up 
a vast fortune. One device adopted by the king for wringing 
money from his wealthy subjects was what was euphoniously 
termed Benevolences. Magna Charta forbade the king to impose 
taxes without the consent of Parliament. But Henry did not like 
to convene Parliament, as he wished to rule like the kings of the 
Continent, guided simply by his own free will. Furthermore, his 
title not being above question, it was his policy to relieve the 
poorer classes of the burden of tax-paying, in order to secure their 
good-will and support. So Benevolences were made to take the 
place of regular taxes. These were nothing more nor less than 
gifts extorted from the well-to-do, generally by moral pressure. 
One of Henry's favorite ministers, named Morton, was particularly 
successful in his appeals for gifts of this kind. To those who lived 
splendidly he would say that it was very evident they were quite 
able to make a generous donation to their sovereign ; while to 
others who lived in a narrow and pinched way he would repre- 
sent that their economical mode of Kfe must have made them 

1 Henry represented the claims of the House of Lancaster, and soon after 
his coronation he married the Princess Elizabeth, a daughter of Edward IV., 
and the representative of the claims of the House of York. 



542 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION, 

wealthy. This famous dilemma received the name of " Morton's 
Fork." 

Maritime Discoveries. — It was during this reign that great 
geographical discoveries enlarged the boundaries of the world. In 
1492 Columbus announced to Europe the existence of land to the 
west. In 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed around the cape of Good 
Hope and found a water-road to the East Indies. 

The same year of this last enterprise, Henry fitted out a fleet 
under the command of John Cabot, a Venetian sailor doing busi- 
ness in England, and his son Sebastian, for exploration in the west- 
ern seas. The Cabots first touched at Newfoundland (or Cape 
Breton Island), and then the following year Sebastian explored the 
coast they had run against, from that point to what is now Virginia 
or the Carolinas, They were the first Europeans, if we except the 
Northmen, to look upon the American continent, for Columbus at 
this time had seen only the islands in front of the Gulf of Mexico. 
These explorations of the Cabots were of great importance for the 
reason that they gave England a title to the best portion of the 
North American coast. 

Foreign Matrimonial Alliances. —^The marriages of Henry's 
children must be noted by us here, because of the great influence 
these alliances had upon the after-course of English history. A 
common fear of France caused Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain 
and Henry to form a protective alliance. To secure the perma- 
nency of the union it was deemed necessary to cement it by a 
marriage bond. The Spanish Infanta was accordingly betrothed 
to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Unfortunately, the prince died soon 
after the celebration of the nuptials. The Spanish sovereigns, still 
anxious to retain the advantages of an English alliance, now urged 
that the young widow be espoused to Arthur's brother Henry, and 
the English king, desirous on his side to preserve the friendship 
of Spain, assented to the betrothal. A rule of the Church, how- 
ever, which forbade a man to marry his brother's widow, stood in 
the way of this arrangement ; but the queen-mother Isabella 
managed to secure a decree from the Pope granting permission 



CARDINAL WOLSEY. 543 

in this case, and so the young widow was betrothed to Prince 
Henry, afterward Henry VHI. This alliance of the royal families 
of England and Spain led to many important consequences, as we 
shall learn. 

To reheve England of danger on her northern frontier, Henry 
steadily pursued the poHcy of a marriage alliance with Scotland. 
His wishes were realized when his eldest daughter Margaret be- 
came the wife of James IV., king of that realm. This was a most 
fortunate marriage, and finally led to the happy union of the two 
countries under a single crown (see p. 6oi). 

Henry VII. died in 1509, leaving his throne to his son Henry, 
an energetic and headstrong youth of eighteen years. 

3. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII. 

(1509-1547). 

Cardinal Wolsey. — We must here, at the opening of Henry 
VITI.'s reign,^ introduce his greatest minister, Thomas Wolsey 
(1471-1530). This man was one of the most reaiarkable char- 
acters of his generation. Henry VIII. elevated him to the office 
of Archbishop of York, and made him lord chancellor of the 
realm. The Pope, courting the minister's influence, made him a 
cardinal, and afterwards papal legate in England. He was now 
at the head of affairs in both State and Church. His revenues 
from his many offices were enormous, and enabled him to assume 
a style of living astonishingly magnificent. His household num- 
bered five hundred persons ; and a truly royal train, made up of 

1 In 15 12, joining what was known as the Holy League, — a union against 
the French king, of which the Pope was the head, — Henry made his first 
campaign in France. While Henry was across the Channel, James H. of 
Scotland thought to give aid to the French king by invading England. The 
Scottish army was met by the English force at Flodden, beneath the Cheviot 
Hills, and completely overwhelmed (15 13). King James was killed, and the 
flower of the Scottish nobility were left dead upon the field. It was the most 
terrible disaster that had ever befallen the Scottish nation. Scott's poem 
entitled Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field, commemorates the battle. 



544 



THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 



bishops and nobles, attended him with great pomp and parade 
wherever he went. 

Henry as Defender of the Faith. — It was early in the reign of 
Henry VIII. that Martin Luther tacked upon the door of the 
Wittenberg church his epoch-making theses. England was stirred 
with the rest of Western Christendom. Henry wrote a Latin trea- 
tise replying to the articles of the audacious monk. The Pope, 
Leo X., rewarded Henry's Catholic zeal by conferring upon him 
the title of '^ Defender of the Faith" (1521). This title was 
retained by Henry after the secession of the Church of England 
from the Papal See, and is borne by his successors at this day, 
though they are " defenders " of quite a different faith from that 

in the defence of which Henry 
first earned the title. 

Henry seeks to be divorced 
from Catherine. — We have now 
to relate some circumstances 
which changed Henry from a 
If zealous supporter of the Papacy 
into its bitterest enemy. ' 

Henry's marriage with Cather- 
ine of Aragon had been prompt- 
ed by policy and not by love. Of 
the five children born of the 
union, all had died save a sickly 
daughter named Mary. In these 
successive afflictions which left him without a son to succeed 
him, Henry saw, or feigned to see, a certain sign of Heaven's 
displeasure because he had taken to wife the widow of his 
brother. 

And now a new circumstance arose, -— if it had not existed for 
some time previous to this. Henry conceived a violent passion 
for Anne Boleyn, a beautiful and vivacious maid of honor in the 
queen's household. This new affection so quickened the king's 




HENRY VIII OF ENGLAND. 
(After a painting by Carl Piloty.) 



,THE FALL OF IVOLSEY. 545 

conscience, that he soon became fully convinced that it was his 
duty to put Catherine aside. ^ 

Accordingly, Henry asked the Pope, Clement VII., to grant 
him a divorce. The request placed Clement in a very embarrass- 
ing position ; for if he refused to grant it, he would offend Henry ; 
and if he granted it, he would offend Charles V., who was Cathe- 
rine's relative. So Clement in his bewilderment was led to tem- 
porize, to make promises to Henry and then evade them. At 
last, after a year's delay, he appointed Cardinal Wolsey and an 
Italian cardinal named Campeggio as commissioners to hold a 
sort of court in England to determine the validity of Henry's 
marriage to Catherine. A year or more dragged along without 
anything being accomplished, and then Clement, influenced by 
the Emperor Charles, ordered Henry and Catherine both to ap- 
pear before him at Rome. (Respecting appeals to Rome, see p. 
418). 

The Fall of Wolsey. — Henry's patience was now completely 
exhausted. Becoming persuaded that Wolsey was not exerting 
himself as he might to secure the divorce, he banished him from 
the court. The hatred of Anne Boleyn and of others pursued 
the fallen minister. He was deposed from all his offices save the 
archbishopric, and eventually was arrested on the charge of high 
treason. Wliile on his way to London the unhappy minister, 
broken in spirits and health, was prostrated by a fatal fever. As 
he lay dying, he uttered these words, which have lived so long 
after him : " Had I served my God as diligently as I have served 
my king, He would not have given me over in my gray hairs " 

(1530)- 
Thomas Cromwell. — A man of great power and mark now 

1 Political considerations, without doubt, had much if not most to do in 
bringing Henry to this state of mind. He was ready to divorce Catherine and 
openly break with Spain, because the Emperor Charles V., to whom he had 
offered the hand of the Princess Mary, had married the Infanta of Portugal, 
and thus cast aside the English alliance. On this point consult Seebohm, The 
Era of the Protestant Revolution, pp. 178-180. 



546 THE ENGLISH KEFORMAriON. 

rises to our notice. Upon the disgrace of Wolsey, a faithful 
attendant of his named Thomas Cromwell straightway assumed in 
Henry's regard the place from which the Cardinal had fallen. He 
was just the opposite of Wolsey in caring nothing for pomp and 
parade. For the space of ten years this wonderful man shaped 
the policy of Henry's government. What he proposed to himself 
was the establishment of a royal despotism upon the ruin of every 
other power in the State. The executioner's axe was constantly 
wet with the blood of those who stood in his way, or who in any 
manner incurred his displeasure. 

It was to the bold suggestions of this man that Henry now 
listened, when all other means of gratifying his passion had been 
tried in vain. Cromwell's advice to the king was to waste no 
more time in negotiating with the Pope, but at once to renounce 
the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, proclaim himself Supreme 
Head of the Church in England, and then get a decree of divorce 
from his own courts. 

The Breach with Rome. — The advice of Cromwell was acted 
upon, and by a series of steps England was swiftly and forever 
carried out from under the authority of the Roman See. Henry 
first virtually cut the Gordian knot by a secret marriage with Anne 
Boleyn, notwithstanding a papal decree threatening him with 
excommunication should he dare to do so. Parliament, which was 
entirely subservient to Henry's wishes, now passed a law known as 
the Statute of Appeals, which made it a crime for any Enghshman 
to carry a case out of the kingdom to the courts at Rome. Cran- 
mer, a Cambridge doctor who had served Henry by writing a book 
in favor of the divorce, was, in accordance with the new pro- 
gramme, made archbishop of Canterbury. He at once formed a 
court, tried the case, and of course declared the king's marriage 
with Catherine null and void from the very first, and his union 
with Anne legal and right. 

The Act of Supremacy (1534). — The decisive step had now 
been taken : the Rubicon had been crossed. The Pope issued a 
decree excommunicating Henry and relieving his subjects from 



SUPREME HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 547 

their allegiance. Henry on his part called Parliament, and a 
celebrated bill known as the Act of Supremacy was passed (1534). 
This statute made Henry the Supreme Head of the Church in 
England, vesting in him absolute control over all its offices, and 
turning into his hands the revenues which had hitherto flowed 
into the coffers of the Roman See. A denial of the title given the 
king by the statute was made high treason. This statute laid the 
foundations of the Anglican Church. 

Henry as Supreme Head of the Church. — Henry now set up 
in England a little Popedom of his own. He drew up a sort of 
creed which everybody must believe, or at least pretend to believe. 
The doctrines of purgatory, of indulgences, of masses for the 
dead, of pilgrimages, of the adoration of images and relics, were 
condemned ; but the doctrines of transubstantiation and of con- 
fession to a priest were retained. Every head of a family and 
every teacher was commanded to teach his children or pupils the 
Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the new Creed. 

Thus was the Enghsh Church cared for by its self-appointed 
shepherd. What it should be called under Henry it would be 
hard to say. It was not Protestant ; and it was just as far from 
being Catholic. 

The Suppression of the Monasteries. — The suppression of the 
monasteries was one of Henry's most high-handed measures. 
Several things led him to resolve on the extinction of these 
religious houses. For one thing, he coveted their wealth, which 
at this time included probably one-fifth of the lands of the realm. 
Then the monastic orders were openly or secretly opposed to 
Henry's claims of supremacy in religious matters ; and this natu- 
rally caused him to regard them with jealousy and disfavor. Hence 
their ruin was planned. 

In order to make the act appear as reasonable as possible, it 
was planned to make the charge of immorality the ostensible 
ground of their suppression. Accordingly two royal commission- 
ers were appointed to inspect the monasteries, and make a report 
upon what they might see and learn. If we may believe the 



548 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

report, the smaller houses were conducted in a most shameful 
manner. The larger houses, however, were fairly free from faults. 
Many of them served as schools, hospitals, and inns, and all dis- 
tributed alms to the poor who knocked at their gates. But the 
undoubted usefulness and irreproachable character of the larger 
foundations did not avail to avert the indiscriminate ruin of all. 
A bill was passed which at once dissolved between three and four 
hundred of the smaller monasteries, and gave all their property to 
the king (1536). 

The unscrupulous act stirred up a rebellion in the north of 
England, known as the " Pilgrimage of Grace." This was sup- 
pressed with great severity, and soon afterwards the larger mon- 
asteries were also dissolved, their possessors generally surren- 
dering the property voluntarily into the hands of the king, lest a 
worse thing than the loss of their houses and lands should come 
upon them.^ Pensions were granted to the dispossessed monks, 
which relieved in part the suffering caused by the proceeding. 

A portion of the confiscated wealth of the houses was used in 
founding schools and colleges, and a part for the establishment of 
bishoprics ; but by far the greater portion was distributed among 
the adherents and favorites of the king. The leading houses of 
the EngHsh aristocracy of to-day, may, according to Hallam, trace 
the title of their estates back to these confiscated lands of the 
religious houses. Thus a new nobility was raised up whose inter- 
ests led them to oppose any return to Rome ; for in such an event 
their estates were liable of course to be restored to the monas- 
teries. 

Persecution of Catholics and Protestants. — Our disapproval 
of Henry's unscrupulous conduct in compassing the ruin of the 
religious houses flames into hot indignation when we come to 
speak of his atrocious crimes against the lives and consciences of 

1 Altogether there were 90 colleges, 1 10 hospitals, 2374 chantries and 
chapels, and 645 monasteries broken up. Such Roman Catholic church prop- 
erty as was spared at this time, was confiscated during the reign of Edward 
VL, and a portion of it used to establish schools and hospitals. 



HENRY'S WIVES. 549 

his subjects. The royal reformer persecuted alike Catholics and 
Protestants. Thus, on one occasion, three Cathohcs who denied 
that the king was the rightful Head of the Church, and three Prot- 
estants who disputed the doctrine of the real presence in the 
sacrament (a dogma which Henry had retained in his creed), were 
dragged on the same sled to the place of execution. 

The most illustrious of the king's victims were the learned Sir 
Thomas More and the aged Bishop Fisher, both of whom were 
brought to the block because their consciences would not allow 
them to acknowledge that the king was rightfully the Supreme 
Head of the Church of England. 

Henry's Wives. — Henry's troubles with his wives form a curi- 
ous and shameful page in the history of England's kings. Anne 
Boleyn retained the affections of her royal husband only a 
short time. She was charged with unfaithfulness and beheaded, 
leaving a daughter who became the famous Queen Elizabeth. 
The day after the execution of Anne the king married Jane Sey- 
mour, who died the following year. She left a son by the name 
of Edward. The fourth marriage of the king was to Anne of 
Cleves, who enjoyed her queenly honors only a few months. The 
king becoming enamoured of a young lady named Catherine How- 
ard, Anne was divorced on the charge of a previous betrothal, 
and a new alliance formed. But Catherine was proved guilty of 
misconduct and her head fell upon the block. The sixth and last 
wife of this amatory monarch was Catherine Parr. She was a 
discreet woman, and managed to outlive her husband. 

His Death and the Succession. — Henry died in 1547. His 
many marriages and divorces had so complicated the question of 
the succession, that Parhament, to avoid disputes after Henry's 
death, had given him power, with some restrictions, to setde the 
matter by will. This he did, directing that the crown should 
descend to his son Edward and his heirs ; in case Edward died 
childless, it was to go to Mary and her heirs, and then to Eliza- 
beth and her heirs. 

Literature under Henry VIII.: More's Utopia. — The most 




550 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

prominent literary figure of this period is Sir Thomas More. The 
work upon which his fame as a writer mainly rests is his Utopia, or 
" Nowhere," a political romance like Plato's Republic or Sir Philip 
Sidney's Arcadia. It pictures an imaginary kingdom away on an 
island beneath the equinoctial in the New World, then just dis- 
covered, where the laws, manners, and customs of the people were 
represented as being ideally perfect. In this wise way More sug- 
gested improvements in social, political, and religious matters : 
for it was the wretchedness, the ignorance, the social tyranny, the 
rehgious intolerance, the despotic government of the times which 
inspired the Utopia. More did not expect, however, that Henry 
would follow all his suggestions, for he closes his account of the 
Utopians with this admission : " I confess that many things in the 
commonwealth of Utopia I rather wish than hope to see adopted 
in our own." And, indeed. More himself, before his death, ma- 
terially changed his views regarding religious persecution. Al- 
though in his book he had expressed his decided disapproval 
of persecution for conscience' sake, yet he afterwards, driven into 
reaction by the terrible excessess of the Peasants' War in Germany, 
and by other popular tumults which seemed to be the outgrowth 
of the Protestant movement, favored persecution, and advised that 
unity of faith be preserved by the use of force. 

4. Changes in the Creed and Ritual under Edward VI. 

(1547-1553)- 
Changes in the Creed. — - In accordance with the provisions of 
\ Henry's will, his only son Edward, by Jane Seymour, succeeded 
him. As Edward was but a child of nine years, the govern- 
ment was entrusted to a board of regents made up of both Prot- 
estants and CathoHcs. But the Protestants usurped authority in 
the body, and conducted the government in the interests of their 
party. The young king was carefully taught the doctrines of the 
reformers, and changes were made in the creed and service of the 
English Church which carried it still farther away from the Roman 
Catholic Church. By a royal decree all pictures, images, and 



CHANGES IN THE CREED. 551 

crosses were cleared from the churches ; the use of tapers, holy 
water, and incense were forbidden ; the worship of the Virgin and 
the invocation of saints was prohibited ; belief in purgatory was 
denounced as a superstition, and prayers for the dead were inter- 
dicted ; the real or bodily presence of Christ in the bread and wine 
of the sacrament was denied ; the prohibition against the marriage 
of the clergy was annulled (a measure which pleased the clergy 
and reconciled them to the other sweeping innovations) ; and 
the services of the Church, which had hitherto been conducted in 
Latin, were ordered to be said in the language of the people. 

In order that the provision last mentioned might be effectually 
carried out, the English Book of Common Prayer was prepared by 
Archbishop Cranmer, and the first copy issued in 1549. This 
book, which was in the main simply a translation of the old Latin 
service-books, with the subsequent change of a word here and a 
passage there to keep it in accord with the growing new doc- 
trines, is the same that is used in the Anglican Church at the 
present time. 

In 1552 were pubhshed the well-known Forty- two Articles of 
Religion, which formed a compendious creed of the reformed 
faith. These Articles, reduced finally to thirty-nine, forni the 
present standard of faith and doctrine in the Church of England. 

Persecutions to secure Uniformity. — These sweeping changes 
in the old creed and in the services of the Church would have 
worked little hardship or wrong had only everybody, as in More's 
happy repubhc, been left free to follow what religion he would. 
But unfortunately it was only away in " Nowhere " that men were 
allowed perfect freedom of conscience and worship. By royal 
edict all preachers and teachers were forced to sign the Forty-two 
Articles ; and severe enactments, known as " Acts for the Uni- 
formity of Service," punished with severe penalties any departure 
from the forms of the new prayer-book. The Princess Mary, who 
remained a firm and conscientious adherent of the old faith, was 
not allowed to have the Roman Catholic service in her own private 
chapel. Even the powerful intercession of the Emperor Charles V. 



552 



THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 



availed nothing. What was considered idolatry in high places 
could not be tolerated. 

Many persons during the reign were imprisoned for refusing to 
conform to the new worship ; while two at least were given to the 
flames as " heretics and contemners of the Book of Common 
Prayer." Probably a large majority of the English people were 
still at this time good Catholics at heart. 

5. Reaction under Mary (155 3- 1558). 

Reconciliation with Rome. — Upon the death of Edward, an 

attempt was made, in 
the interest of the Prot- 
estant party, to place 
upon the throne Lady 
Jane Grey,^ a grand- 
niece of Henry VIII. ; 
but the people, knowing 
that Mary was the right- 
ful heir to the throne, 
rallied about her, and 
she was proclaimed 
queen amidst great dem- 
onstrations of loyalty. 
C'^"^^'?M^ Soon after her acces- 
sion, she was married to 
Philip II. of Spain. 

Mary was an earnest 
Catholic, and her zeal 
effected the full reestab- 
Hshment of the Catholic 
worship throughout the 
realm. ParHament voted that the nation should return to its obe- 
dience to the Papal See ; and then the members of both houses fell 

1 The leaders of this movement were executed, and Lady Jane Grey was 
also eventually brought to the block. 




MARY TUDOR. 



RECONCILIATION WITH ROME. 553 

upon their knees to receive at the hands of the legate of the Pope 
absolution from the sin of heresy and schism. The sincerity 
of their repentance was attested by their repeal of all the acts of 
Henry and of Edward by which the new worship had been set up 
in the land. The joy at Rome was unbounded. 

But not quite everything done by the reformers was undone. 
Parliament refused to restore the confiscated Church lands, which 
was very natural, as much of this property was now in the hands 
of the lords and commoners (see p. 548). Mary, however, in 
her zeal for the ancient faith, restored a great part of the property 
still in the possession of the crown, and refounded many of the 
ruined monasteries and abbeys. 

Persecution of the Protestants. — With the reestablishment of 
the Roman worship, the Protestants in their turn became the vic- 
tims of persecution. The three most eminent martyrs of what is 
known as the Marian persecutions were Latimer, Ridley, and 
Cranmer. Altogether, between two and three hundred persons 
suffered death, during this reign, on account of their religion. 

For the part she took in the persecutions that marked her reign, 
Mary should be judged not by the standard of our time, but by 
that of her own. Punishment of heresy was then regarded, by both 
Catholics and Protestants alike, as a duty which could be neglected 
by those in authority only at the peril of Heaven's displeasure. 
Believing this, those of that age could consistently do nothing less 
than labor to exterminate heresy with axe, sword, and fagot. 

The Loss of Calais. — The marriage of Philip and Mary had 
been earnestly wished for by the Emperor Charles V., in order 
that Philip, in those wars with France which he well knew must 
be a part of the bequest which he should make to his son, might 
have the powerful aid of England. This was Philip's chief reason 
in seeking the alHance ; and in due time he called upon Mary for 
assistance against the French king. The result of England's 
participation in the war was her mortifying loss of Calais (see p. 
487), which the. French, by an unexpected attack, snatched out 
of the hands of its garrison (1558). The unfortunate queen did 



554 



THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 



not live out the year that marked this calamity, which she most 

deeply deplored. 

'[I 
6. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth 

(1558-1603). 

The Queen. — Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. and 
Anne Boleyn. She seems to have inherited the characteristics of 
both parents ; hence the inconsistencies of her disposition. 




ENTRANCE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH INTO LONDON. 
(Showing the costumes of the time.) 

When the death of Mary called Elizabeth to the throne, she 
was twenty-five years of age. Like her father, she favored the 
reformed faith rather from pohcy than conviction. It was to the 
Protestants alone that she could look for support; her title to 
the crown was denied by every true Catholic in the realm, for 
she was the child of that marriage which the Pope had forbidden 
under pain of the anathemas of the Church. 

Elizabeth possessed a strong will, indomitable courage, admir- 



ELIZABETH'S MINISTERS. 555 

able judgment, and great political tact. It was these qualities 
which rendered her reign the strongest and most illustrious in the 
record of England's sovereigns, and raised the nation from a 
position of insignificance to a foremost place among the states of 
Europe. 

Along with her good and queenly qualities and acccomplish- 
ments, Elizabeth had many unamiable traits and unwomanly ways. 
She was capricious, treacherous, unscrupulous, ungrateful, and 
cruel. She seemed almost wholly devoid of a moral or religious 
sense. Deception and falsehood were her usual weapons in diplo- 
macy. " In the profusion and recklessness of her lies," declares 
Green, " Elizabeth stood without a peer in Christendom." 

Her Ministers. — One secret of the strength and popularity of 
Ehzabeth's government was the admirable judgment she exercised 
in her choice of advisers. Around her Council-board she gath- 
ered the wisest and strongest men to be found in the realm. The 
most eminent of the queen's ministers was Sir William Cecil (Lord 
Burleigh), a man of great sagacity and ceaseless industry, to whose 
able counsel and prudent management is largely due the success 
of Elizabeth's reign. He stood at the head of the Queen's Coun- 
cil for forty years. His son Robert, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Sir 
Francis Walsingham were also prominent among the queen's 
advisers. 

Reestablishment of the Reformed Church. — As Mary undid 
the work in religion of Henry and Edward, so now her work is 
undone by Elizabeth. The religious houses that had been re- 
established by Mary were again dissolved, and Parliament, by 
two new Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, relaid the founda- 
tions of the Anglican Church. 

The Act of Supremacy required all the clergy, and every person 
holding office under the crown, to take an oath declaring the queen 
to be the supreme governor of the realm in all spiritual as well as 
temporal things, and renouncing the authority or jurisdiction of 
any foreign prince or prelate. For refusing to take this oath, 
many Catholics during Elizabeth's reign suffered death, and 



556 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

many more endured within the Tower the worse horrors of the 
rack. 

The Act of Uniformity forbade any clergyman to use any but 
the AngUcan hturgy, and required every person to attend the 
EstabHshed Church on Sunday and other holy days. For every 
absence a fine of one shilling was imposed. The persecutions 
which arose under this law caused many Catholics to seek freedom 
of worship in other countries. 

The Protestant Non-Conformists. — The Catholics were not 
the only persons among Elizabeth's subjects who were opposed to 
the Anglican worship. There were Protestant non-conformists — 
the Puritans and the Separatists — who troubled her almost as 
much as the Romanists. 

The Puritans were so named because they desired a purer form 
of worship than the Anglican. To these earnest reformers the 
Church Elizabeth had established seemed but half-reformed. 
Many rites and ceremonies, such as wearing the surplice and mak- 
ing the cross in baptism, had been retained ; and these things, in 
their eyes, appeared mere Popish superstitions. What they wanted 
was a more sweeping change, a form of worship more like that of 
the Calvinistic churches of Geneva, in which city very many of 
them had lived as exiles during the Marian persecution. They, 
however, did not at once withdraw from the Estabhshed Church, 
but remaining within its pale, labored to reform it, and to shape 
its doctrines and discipline to their notions. 

The Separatists were still more zealous reformers than the Puri- 
tans : in their hatred of everything that bore any resemblance to 
the Roman worship, they flung away the surplice and the Prayer- 
book, severed all connection with the Established Church, and 
refused to have anything to do with it. Under the Act of Con- 
formity they were persecuted with great severity, so that multi- 
tudes were led to seek an asylum upon the continent. It was from 
among these exiles gathered in Holland that a little later came the 
passengers of the Mayflower, — the Pilgrim Fathers, who laid the 
foundations of civil liberty in the New World. 



MARY STUART. 557 

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. — A large part of the history of 
Elizabeth's reign is intertwined with the story of her cousin, Mary 
Stuart, Queen of Scots. Mary Stuart was the daughter of James 
V. of Scotland, and to her in right of birth — according to all 
Catholics who denied the validity of Henry's marriage with Anne 
Boleyn — belonged the English crown next after Mary Tudor. 
Upon the death, in 1560, of her husband Francis II. of France, 
Mary gave up life at the French court, and returned to her native 
land. She was now in her nineteenth year. The subtle charm of 
her beauty seems to have bewitched all who came into her pres- 
ence — save the more zealous of the Protestants, who could never 
forget that their young sovereign was a Catholic. The stern old 
reformer, John Knox, made her hfe miserable. He was a veritable 
Elijah, in whose eyes Mary appeared a modern Jezebel. He called 
her a '' Moabite," and the "Harlot of Babylon," till she wept from 
sheer vexation. She dared not punish the impudent preacher, for 
she knew too well the strength of the Protestant feehng among 
her subjects. 

Other things now conspired with Mary's hated religion to alien- 
ate entirely the love of her people. Her second husband, Henry 
Stuart, Lord Darnley, was murdered. The queen was suspected 
of having some guilty knowledge of the affair. She was impris- 
oned and forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James. 

Escaping from prison, Mary fled into England (1568). Here 
she threw herself upon the generosity of her cousin Elizabeth, and 
entreated aid in recovering her throne. But the part which she 
was generally beheved to have had in the murder of her husband, 
her disturbing claims to the English throne, and the fact that she 
was a Catholic, all conspired to determine her fate. She was 
placed in confinement, and for nineteen years she remained a 
prisoner. During all this time Mary was the centre of innumer- 
able plots and conspiracies on the part of the Catholics, which 
aimed at setting her upon the English throne. The Pope aided 
these conspirators by a bull excommunicating Elizabeth, deny- 
ing her right to the crown she wore, and releasing her subjects 
from their allegiance. 



558 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

Events just now occurring on the continent tended to inflame 
the Protestants of England with a deadly hatred against Mary and 
her Catholic friends and abettors. In 1572 the Huguenots of 
France were slaughtered on St. Bartholomew's Day. In 1584 the 
Prince of Orange fell at the hands of a hired assassin. That there 
were daggers waiting to take the life of Elizabeth was well known. 
It was evident that so long as Mary lived the queen's life was in 
constant danger. In the feverish state of the public mind, it was 
natural that the air should be filled with rumors of plots of every 
kind. Finally, a carefully laid conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth 
and place Mary on the throne, was unearthed. Mary was tried 
for complicity in the plot, was declared guilty, and, after some 
hesitation, feigned or otherwise, on the part of Elizabeth, was 
ordered to the block (1587). 

The Invincible Armada. — The execution of Mary Stuart led 
immediately to the memorable attempt against England by the 
Spanish Armada. Before her death the Queen of Scots had be- 
queathed to Phihp II. of Spain her claims to the English crown. 
To enforce these rights, to avenge the death of Mary, to punish 
Elizabeth for rendering aid to his rebellious subjects in the Neth- 
erlands, and to deal a fatal blow to the Reformation in Europe by 
crushing the Protestants of England, Philip resolved upon making 
a tremendous effort for the conquest of the heretical and trouble- 
some island. Vast preparations were made for carrying out the 
project. Great fleets were gathered in the harbors of Spain, and 
a large army was assembled in the Netherlands to cooperate with 
the naval armament. The Pope, Sixtus V., blessed the enterprise, 
which was thus rendered a sort of crusade. 

These threatening preparations produced a perfect fever of 
excitement in England ; for we must bear in mind that the Span- 
ish king was at this time the most powerful potentate in Europe, 
commanding the resources of a large part of two worlds. Never 
did Roman citizens rise more splendidly to avert some terrible 
peril threatening the republic than the English people now arose 
as a single man to defend their island-realm against the revengeful 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 



559 



and ambitious project of Spain. The imminent danger served tj 
unite all classes, the gentry and the yeomanry, Protestants and 
Catholics. The latter might intrigue to set a Mary Stuart on the 
English throne, but they were not ready to betray their land into 
the hands of the hated Spaniards. 

July 19, 1588, the Invincible Armada, as it was boastfully called, 
was first descried by the watchmen on the English cliffs. It swept 
up the channel in the form of a great crescent, seven miles in 




SPANISH AND ENGLISH WAR-VESSELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



width from tip to tip of horn. The English fleet, commanded by 
Drake, Howard, and Lord Henry Seymour, disputed its advance. 
The light build and quick movements of the English ships gave 
them a great advantage over the clumsy, unwieldy Spanish galle- 
ons. The result was the complete defeat of .the immense Armada, 
and the destruction of many of the ships. The remaining galleons 
sought to escape by sailing northward around the British Isles ; 
but a terrible tempest arising, many of the fleeing ships were 
dashed to pieces on the Scottish or the Irish shores. Barely one- 



560 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

third of the ships of the Armada ever reentered the harbors 
whence they sailed. When intelhgence of the woeful disaster was 
carried to Philip, he simply said, " God's will be done ; I sent my 
fleet to fight with the EngHsh, not with the elements." 

The destruction of the Invincible Armada was not only a terrible 
blow to Spanish pride, but an equally heavy blow to Spanish 
supremacy among the states of Europe. From this time on, 
Spain's prestige and power rapidly declined. 

As to England, she had been delivered from a great peril ; and 
as to the cause of Protestantism, it was now safe. 

Maritime and Colonial Enterprises. — The crippling of the 
naval power of Spain left England mistress of the seas. The little 
island-realm now entered upon the most splendid period of her 
history. The old Norse blood of her people, stirred by recent 
events, seemed to burn with a feverish impatience for maritime 
adventure and glory. Many a story of the daring exploits of Eng- 
lish sea-rovers during the reign of Elizabeth seems hke a repetition 
of some tale of the old Vikings.^ 

Especially deserving of mention among the enterprises of these 
stirring and romantic times are the undertakings of Sir Walter 
Raleigh (1552-1618). Several expeditions were sent out by him 
for the purpose of making explorations and forming settlements 
in the New World. One of these, which explored the central 
coasts of North America, returned with such glowing accounts of 
the beauty and richness of the land visited, that, in honor of the 
Virgin Queen, it was named "Virginia." 

Sir Walter Raleigh sent two colonies to the new land, but they 
both failed to form permanent settlements. It is said that the 

1 Among all these sea-rovers, half explorer, half pirate, Sir Francis Drake 
( 1 545-1 595) was preeminent. Before the Armada days he had sailed around 
the globe (1577-1579)5 and for the achievement had been knighted by Queen 
EHzabeth. The whole life of this sixteenth century Viking was spent in fight- 
ing the fleets of his sovereign's enemy, Philip II., in capturing Spanish treas- 
ure-vessels on the high sea, and in pillaging the warehouses and settlements 
on every Spanish shore in the Old and the New World. 



DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 561 

returning colonists first acquainted the English with the Indian 
custom of smoking tobacco, and that Sir Walter Raleigh made the 
practice popular. This may be true ; yet prior to this, Europeans 
had acquired a knowledge of the plant and some of its uses 
through Spanish explorers and settlers. At this same time also, 
the potato, likewise a native product of the New World, was intro- 
duced into the British Isles. 

The Queen's Death. — The closing days of Elizabeth's reign 
were, to her personally, dark and gloomy. She seemed to be 
burdened with a secret grief,^ as well as by the growing infirmities 
of age. She died March 24, 1603, in the seventieth year of her 
age, and the forty-fifth of her reign. With her ended the Tudor 
line of English sovereigns. 

Literatiwe of the Elizabethan Era. 

Influences favorable to Literature. — The years covered by 
the reign of Elizabeth constitute the most momentous period 
in history. It was the age when Europe was most deeply stirred 
by the Reformation. It was, too, a period of marvellous physi- 
cal and intellectual expansion and growth. The discoveries of 
Columbus and Copernicus had created, as Froude affirms, " not 
in any metaphor, but in plain and literal speech, a new heaven 
and a new earth." The New Learning had, at the same time, dis- 
covered the old world — had revealed an unsuspected treasure in 
the philosophies and literatures of the past. 

No people of Europe felt more deeply the stir and movement 
of the times, nor helped more to create this same stir and move- 
ment, than the English nation. There seemed to be nothing too 
great or arduous for them to undertake. They made good their 
resistance to the Roman See ; they humbled the pride of the 

1 In 1 601 she sent to the block her chief favorite, the Earl of Essex, who had 
been found guilty of treason. She wished to spare him, and probably would 
have done so, had a token which he sent her from his prison reached her. 
Read the story as told in all the histories of England. 



562 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 

Strongest monarch in Christendom ; they sailed round the globe, 
and penetrated all its seas. 

An age of such activity and achievement almost of necessity 
gives birth to a strong and vigorous literature. And thus is ex- 
plained, in part at least, how the English people during this period 
should have developed a literature of such originality and richness 
and strength as to make it the prized inheritance of all the 
world. 

The "Writers. — To make special mention of all the great writers 
who adorned the Elizabethan era would carry us quite beyond the 
limits of our book. Having said something of the influences under 
which they wrote, we will simply add that this age was the age of 
Shakespeare and Spenser and Bacon.^ 

1 William Shakespeare (1564-1616); Edmund Spenser (i552?-i599) ; 
Francis Bacon (i 561-1626). Shakespeare and Bacon, it will be noticed, out- 
lived Elizabeth. Two other names hold a less prominent place, — that of Sir 
Philip Sidney (1554-1586), the courtly knight, who wrote the Arcadia, 2, sort 
of pastoral romance, and A Defence of Poesy, a work intended to counteract 
the Puritanical spirit then rising; and that of Richard Hooker (i 553-1 600), 
who in his Ecclesiastical Polity defends the Anglican Church. 







REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 




THE COUNTRY. 563 



CHAPTER LI. 

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS: RISE OF THE DUTCH 

REPUBLIC. 

(1572-1609.) 

The Country. — The term Netherlands (low-lands) was for- 
merly applied to all that low, marshy district in the northwest of 
Europe, sunk much of it below the level of the sea, now occupied 
by the kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. The entire strip of 
land is simply the delta accumulations of the Rhine and other 
rivers emptying into the North Sea. Originally it was often over- 
flowed by its streams and inundated by the ocean. But this un- 
promising morass, protected at last by heavy dykes against the 
invasions of the ocean and the overflow of its streams, was 
destined to become the site of cities which at one period were the 
richest and most potent of Europe, and the seat of one of liie 
foremost commonwealths of modern times. 

No country in Europe made greater progress in civihzation dur- 
ing the mediaeval era than the Netherlands. At the opening of 
the sixteenth century they contained a crowded and busy popula- 
tion of 3,000,000 souls. The ancient marshes had been trans- 
formed into carefully kept gardens and orchards. The walled 
cities alone numbered between two and three hundred. 

The Low Countries under Charles V. (15 15-1555). — The 
Netherlands were part of those possessions over which Charles V. 
ruled by hereditary right. Though Charles could not prevent the 
growth of Protestantism in Germany, he resolved to root out the 
heresy from his hereditary possessions of the Netherlands. By 
an Imperial edict he condemned to death all persons presuming 
to read the Scriptures, or even to discuss rehgious topics. The 
Inquisition was introduced, and thousands perished at the stake 
and upon the scaffold, or were strangled, or buried alive. But 



564 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

when Charles retired to the monastery at Yuste (see p. 534), the 
reformed doctrines were, notwithstanding all his efforts, far more 
widely spread and deeply rooted in the Netherlands than when 
he entered upon their extirpation by fire and sword. 

Accession of Philip II. — In 1555, in the presence of an august 
and princely assembly at Brussels, and amidst the most imposing 
and dramatic ceremonies, Charles V. abdicated the crown whose 
weight he could no longer bear, and placed the same upon the 
head of his son Phihp (see p. 534), who was a most zealous 
Catholic. Philip remained in the Netherlands after his coronation 
four years, employing much of his time in devising means to root 
out the heresy of Protestantism. In 1559 he set sail for Spain, 
never to return. 

Long live the Beggars. — Upon his departure from the Nether- 
lands Philip entrusted their government to his half-sister, Margaret, 
Duchess of Parma, as Regent. Under the administration of Mar- 
garet (T559-1567) the persecution of the Protestants went on 
with renewed bitterness. Philip declared that " he would rather 
lose a hundred thousand lives, were they all his own, than allow 
the smallest deviation from the standards of the Roman Catholic 
Church." Thousands fled the country, many of the fugitives find- 
ing a home in England. At last the nobles leagued together for 
the purpose of resisting the Inquisition. They demanded of the 
Regent a redress of grievances. When the petition was presented 
to the Duchess, she displayed great agitation, whereupon one of 
her councillors exclaimed, " Madam, are you afraid of a pack of 
beggars?" 

The expression was carried to the nobles, who were assembled 
at a banquet. Immediately one of their number suspended a beg- 
gar's wallet from his neck, and filling a wooden bowl with wine, 
proposed the toast, " Long live the Beggars." The name was 
tumultuously adopted, and became the party designation of the 
patriot Netherlanders during their long struggle with the Spanish 
power. 

The Iconoclasts (1566). — Affairs now rapidly verged towards 



THE ICONOCLASTS. 565 

violence and open revolt. The only reply of the government to 
the petition of the nobles was a decree termed the Moderation, 
which substituted hanging for burning in the case of condemned 
heretics. The pent-up indignation of the people at length burst 
forth in an uncontrollable fury. They gathered in great mobs, 
and arming themselves with whatever implements they could first 
seize, proceeded to demolish every image they could find in the 
churches throughout the country. The rage of the insurgents was 
turned in this direction, because in their eyes these churches rep- 
resented the hated Inquisition under which they were suffering. 
Scarcely a church in all the Netherlands escaped. The monas- 
teries, too, were sacked, their libraries burned, and the inmates 
driven from their cloisters. In the province of Flanders alone 
there were four hundred sacred buildings visited by the mob, and 
sacked. The tempest destroyed innumerable art treasures, which 
have been as sincerely mourned by the lovers of the beautiful as 
the burned rolls of the Alexandrian Library have been lamented 
by the lovers of learning. 

These image-breaking riots threw Philip into a perfect transport 
of rage. He tore his beard, and exclaimed, " It shall cost them 
dear ! I swear it by the soul of my father ! " 

The Duke of Alva and William of Orange. — The year follow- 
ing the outbreak of the Iconoclasts, Phihp sent to the Netherlands 
a veteran Spanish army, headed by the Duke of Alva. The duke 
was one of the ablest generals of the age ; and the intelligence of 
his coming threw the provinces into a state of the greatest agitation 
and alarm. Those who could do so hastened to get out of the 
country. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, fled to Germany, 
where he began to gather an army of volunteers for the struggle 
which he now saw to be inevitable. Egmont and Horn, noble- 
men of high rank and great distinction, were seized, cast into 
prison, and afterwards beheaded (1568). 

The eyes of all Netherlanders were now turned to the Prince 
of Orange as their only deliverer. Towards the close of the year 
1568, he marched from Germany against Alva, at the head of an 



566 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 




WILLIAM OF ORANGE (the Silent). 
(Aftera copper-plate by William JacobzDelff, 1580-1638.) 



army of 30,000 men, which he had raised and equipped princi- 
pally at his own expense. The war was now fully joined. The 
struggle lasted for more than a generation, — for thirty-seven years. 

The Spanish armies were 
commanded successively by 
the most experienced and 
distinguished generals of Eu- 
rope, — the Duke of Alva, 
Don John of Austria (the 
conqueror of the Moors and 
the hero of the great naval 
fight of Lepanto), and the 
Duke of Parma ; but the 
Prince of Orange coped ably 
with them all, and in the 
masterly service which he 
rendered his country, thus 
terribly assaulted, earned 
the title of " the Founder of Dutch Liberties." 

Isolation of the Provinces. — The Netherlanders sustained the 
unequal contest almost single-handed ; for, though they found 
much sympathy among the Protestants of Germany, France, and 
England, they never received material assistance from any of these 
countries, excepting England, and it was not until late in the strug- 
gle that aid came from this source. Elizabeth did, indeed, at first 
furnish the patriots with secret aid, and opened the ports of Eng- 
land to the "Beggars of the Sea " ; but after a time the fear of 
involving herself in a war with Philip led her to withhold for a long 
period all contributions and favors. As regards the German states, 
they were too much divided among themselves to render efficient 
aid ; and just at the moment when the growing Protestant senti- 
ment in France encouraged the Netherlanders to look for help 
from the Huguenot party there, the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
extinguished forever all hope of succor from that quarter (see 
p. 576). So the little revolted provinces were left to carry on un- 



PACIFICATION OF GHENT. 567 

aided, as best they might, a contest with the most powerful mon- 
arch of Christendom. 

The details of this memorable struggle we must, of course, leave 
unnoticed, and hurry on to the issue of the matter. In so doing 
we shall pass unnoticed many memorable sieges and battles.^ 

Pacification of Ghent (1576). — The year 1576 was marked by 
a revolt of the Spanish soldiers, on account of their not receiving 
their pay, the costly war having drained Philip's treasury. The 
mutinous army marched through the land, pillaging city after city, 
and paying themselves with the spoils. The beautiful city of 
Antwerp was ruined. The horrible massacre of its inhabitants, 
and the fiendish atrocities committed by the frenzied soldiers, 
caused the awful outbreak to be called the " Spanish Fury." 

The terrible state of affairs led to an alliance between Holland 
and Zealand and the other fifteen provinces of the Netherlands, 
known in history as the Pacification of Ghent (1576). The resist- 
ance to the Spanish crown had thus far been carried on without 
concerted action among the several states, the Prince of Orange 
having hitherto found it impossible to bring the different provinces 
to agree to any plan of general defence. But the awful experi- 
ences of the Spanish Fury taught the necessity of union, and led 
all the seventeen provinces solemnly to agree to unite in driving the 
Spaniards from the Netherlands, and in securing full liberty for all 
in matters of faith and worship. William of Orange, with the title 
of Stadtholder, was placed at the head of the union. It was 
mainly the strong Catholic sentiment in the Southern provinces 
that had prevented such a union and pacification long before. 

The Union of Utrecht (1579). — With the Spanish forces 
under the lead first of Don John of Austria, the hero-victor of 
Lepanto, and afterwards of Prince Alexander of Parma, a com- 
mander of most distinguished ability, the war now went on with 
increased vigor, fortune, with many vacillations, inclining to the 
side of the Spaniards. Disaffection arose among the Netherland- 

1 Read in Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic the siege and sack of Har- 
lem and the rehef of Leyden. 



568 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

ers, the outcome of which was the separation of the provinces. 
The Prince of Orange, seeing the impossibihty of uniting all the 
states, devoted his efforts to effecting a confederation of the 
Northern ones. His endeavors were fortunately crowned with 
success, and the seven Protestant states of the North,^ the chief of 
which were Holland and Zealand, by the treaty of Utrecht (1579), 
were united in a permanent confederation, known as the Seven 
United Provinces of the Netherlands. In this league was laid the 
foundation of the Dutch Republic. 

Fortunate would it have been for the Netherlands, could all of 
the states at this time have been brought to act in concert. 
Under the leadership of the Prince of Orange, the seventeen prov- 
inces might have been consolidated into a powerful nation, that 
might now be reckoned among the great powers of Europe. 

The " Ban" and the " Apology." — William of Orange was, of 
course, the animating spirit of the confederacy formed by the 
treaty of Utrecht. In the eyes of Philip and his viceroys he ap- 
peared the sole obstacle in the way of the pacification of the prov- 
inces and their return to civil and ecclesiastical obedience. In 
vain had Philip sent against him the ablest and most distinguished 
commanders of the age ; in vain had he endeavored to detach 
him from the cause of his country by magnificent bribes of titles, 
offices, and fortune. 

Philip now resolved to employ assassination for the removal of 
the invincible general and the incorruptible patriot. He published 
a ban against the prince, declaring him an outlaw, and offering to 
any one who should kill him the pardon of all his sins, a title of 
nobility, and 25,000 gold crowns. 

The prince responded to the infamous edict in a remarkable 
paper, entitled " The Apology of the Prince of Orange," — the 

1 The ten Catholic provinces of the South, although they continued their 
contest with Philip a little longer, ultimately submitted to Spanish tyranny. A 
portion of these provinces were absorbed by France, while the remainder, 
after varied fortunes amidst the revolutions and dynastic changes of the 
European states, finally became the present kingdom of Belgium. 



ASSASSINATION OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. 569 

most terrible arraignment of tyranny that was ever penned. The 
"Apology " was scattered throughout Europe, and everywhere pro- 
duced a profound impression. The friends of the prince, while 
admiring his boldness, were filled with alarm for his safety. 
Their apprehensions, as the issue shows, were not unfounded. 

Assassination of the Prince of Orange. — " The ban soon 
bore fruit." Upon the loth day of July, 1584, five previous un- 
successful attempts having been made upon his life, the Prince of 
Orange was fatally shot by an assassin. The heirs of the murderer 
received substantially the reward which had been offered in the 
ban, being enriched with the estates of the prince, and honored 
by elevation to the ranks of the Spanish nobility. 

The character of William the Silent is one of the most admir- 
able portrayed in all history.^ His steadfast and unselfish devotion 
to the cause of his country deservedly won for him the love of all 
classes. His people fondly called him " Father William." 

Prince Maurice : Sir Philip Sidney. — Severe as was the blow 
sustained by the Dutch patriots in the death of the Prince of 
Orange, they did not lose heart, but continued the struggle with 
the most admirable courage and steadfastness. Prince Maurice, 
a youth of seventeen years, the second son of William, was chosen 
Stadtholder in his place, and proved himself a worthy son of the 
great chief and patriot. The war now proceeded with unabated 
fury. The Southern provinces were, for the most part, in the 
hands of the Spaniards, while the revolutionists held control, in the 
main, of the Northern states. 

Substantial aid from the Enghsh now came to the struggling 
Hollanders. Queen Ehzabeth, alarmed by the murder of the 
Prince of Orange, — for she well knew that hired agents of the 
king of Spain watched likewise for her life, — openly espoused 

1 He was not, however, without faults. The most serious of these was his 
habit of dissimulation. vSome charge to this the separation of the Northern 
and Southern provinces after the Pacification of Ghent. The Southern prov- 
inces would not trust the " double-dealer." For references to various Avriters 
on this point, consult Young's History of the Netherlands, p. 320. 



570 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

the cause of the Dutch. Among the Enghsh knights who led 
the British forces sent into the Netherlands was the gallant Sir 
Philip Sidney, the " Flower of Chivalry." At the siege of Zutphen 
(1586), he received a mortal wound. A little incident that oc- 
curred as he rode from the field, suffering from his terrible hurt, 
is always told as a memorial of the gentle knight. A cup of water 
having been brought him, he was about to lift it to his lips, when 
his hand was arrested by the longing glance of a wounded soldier 
who chanced at that moment to be carried past. '^ Give it to 
him," said the fainting knight ; " his necessity is greater than 
mine." 

Progress of the War: Treaty of 1609. — ^The circle of war 
grew more and more extended. France as well as England 
became involved, both fighting against Philip, who was now laying 
claims to the crowns of both these countries. The struggle was 
maintained on land and on sea, in the Old World and in the New. 
The English fleet, under the noted Sir Francis Drake (see p. 
560, n.), ravaged the Spanish settlements in Florida and the West 
Indies, and intercepted the treasure-ships of Philip returning from 
the mines of Mexico and Peru ; the Dutch fleet wrested from Spain 
many of her possessions in the East Indies and among the islands 
of the South Pacific. 

Europe at last grew weary of the seemingly interminable strug- 
gle, and the Spanish commanders becoming convinced that it was 
impossible to reduce the Dutch rebels to obedience by force of 
arms, negotiations were entered into, and by the celebrated treaty 
of 1609, comparative peace was secured to Christendom. 

The treaty of 1609 was in reality an acknowledgment by Spain 
of the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, 
although the Spanish king was so unwilling to admit the fact of 
his being unable to reduce the rebel states to submission, that the 
treaty was termed simply " a truce for twelve years." Spain did 
not formally acknowledge their independence until forty years 
afterwards, in the Peace of Westphalia, at the end of the Thirty 
Years' War (1648) (see p. 586). 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROVINCES. 571 

Development of the Provinces during the War. — One of the 

most remarkable features of the war for Dutch independence was 
the vast expansion of the trade and commerce of the revolted 
provinces, and their astonishing growth in population, wealth, and 
resources, while carrying on the bitter and protracted struggle. 
When the contest ended, notwithstanding the waste of war, the 
number of inhabitants crowded on that little patch of sea-bottom 
and morass constituting the Dutch Republic, was equal to the 
entire population of England ; that is to say, to three or four 
millions. But the home-land was only a small part of the domin- 
ions of the commonwealth. Through the enterprise and audacity 
of its bold sailors, it had made extensive acquisitions in the East 
Indies and other parts of the world, largely at the expense of the 
Spanish and the Portuguese colonial possessions. The commerce 
of the little repubhc had so expanded that more than one hundred 
thousand of its citizens found a home upon the sea. No idlers or 
beggars were allowed a place in the industrious commonwealth. 
And hand in hand with industry went intelligence. Throughout 
the United Provinces it was rare to meet with a person who could 
not both read and write. 



^ 



572 THE HUGUENOT WARS. 



CHAPTER LIL 

THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE. 
(1562-1629.) 

Beginning of the Reformation in France. — Before Luther 
posted his ninety-five theses at Wittenberg, there appeared in the 
University of Paris and elsewhere in France men who, from their 
study of the Scriptures, had come to entertain opinions very hke 
those of the German reformer. The land which had been the 
home of the Albigenses was again filled with heretics. The move- 
ment thus begun received a fresh impulse from the uprising in 
Germany under Luther. 

The Reformation in France, as elsewhere, brought dissension, 
persecution, and war. We have already seen how Francis I., the 
first of the Valois-Orleans dynasty,^ waged an exterminating cru- 
sade against his heretical Waldensian subjects (see p. 533). His 
son and successor, Henry IL, also conceived it to be his duty to 
uproot heresy ; and it was his persecution of his Protestant sub- 
jects that sowed the seeds of those long and woful civil and relig- 
ious wars which he left as a terrible legacy to his three feeble sons, 
Francis, Charles, and Henry, who followed him in succession upon 
the throne. At the time these wars began, which was about the 
middle of the sixteenth century, the confessors of the reformed 
creed, who later were known as Hiigiieiiots^ numbered probably 
400,000. The new doctrines found adherents especially among 

1 The Valois-Orleans sovereigns, whose reigns cover the greater part of 
the period treated in the present chapter, were Louis XII. (1498-15 15), Fran- 
cis I. (1515-1547), Henry II. (1547-1559), Francis II. (1559-1560), Charles 
IX. (1560-1574), Henry III. (1574-1589). The successor of Henry III. — 
Henry IV. — was the first of the Bourbons. 

2 This word is probably a corruption of the German Eidgenossen, meaning 
" oath-comrades " or " confederates." 



CATHOLIC AND HUGUENOT LEADERS. 573 

the nobility and the higher classes, and had taken particularly- 
deep root in the South, — the region of the old Albigensian 
heresy. 

The Catholic and the Huguenot Leaders. — The leaders of the 
Catholic party were the notorious. Catherine de Medici, and the 
powerful chiefs of the family of the Guises. Catherine, the queen- 
mother of the last three Valois- Orleans sovereigns, was an intrigu- 
ing, treacherous Italian. Nominally she was a Catholic ; but only 
nominally, for it seems certain that she was almost destitute of 
religious convictions of any kind. What she sought was power, 
and this she was ready to secure by any means. When it suited 
her purpose, she favored the Huguenots ; aud when it suited her 
purpose better, she incited the Catholics to make war upon them. 
Perhaps no other woman ever made so much trouble in the world. 
She made France wretched through the three successive reigns of 
her sons, and brought her house to a shameful and miserable end. 

At the head of the family of the Guises stood Francis, Duke of 
Guise, a famous commander, who had gained great credit and 
popularity among his countrymen by many military exploits, espe- 
cially by his capture of Calais from the English in the recent 
Spanish wars (see p. 553). By his side stood a younger brother 
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. Both of these men were ardent 
CathoHcs. Mary Stuart, the queen of the young king Francis II., 
was their niece, and through her they ruled the boy-king. The 
Pope and the king of Spain were friends and allies of the Guises. 

The chiefs of the Huguenots were the Bourbon princes, Anthony, 
king of Navarre, and Louis, Prince of Conde, who, next after the 
brothers of Francis II., were heirs to the French throne ; and 
Gaspard de Cohgny, Admiral of France. Anthony was not a man 
of deep convictions. He at first sided with the Protestants, prob- 
ably because it was only through forming an alliance with them 
that he could carry on his opposition to the Guises. He after- 
wards went over to the side of the Catholics. A man of very dif- 
ferent character was Admiral Coligny. Early in life he had em- 
braced the doctrines of the reformers, and he remained to the last 



574 THE HUGUENOT WARS. 

the trusted and consistent, though ill-starred, champion of the 
Protestants. 

The Conspiracy of Amboise (1560). — The foregoing notice of 
parties and their chiefs will render intelhgible the events which we 
now have to narrate. The harsh measures adopted against the 
reformers by Francis IL, who of course was entirely under the 
influence of the Guises, led the chiefs of the persecuted party to 
lay a plan for wresting the government from the hands of these 
" new Mayors of the Palace." The Guises were to be arrested 
and imprisoned, and the charge of the young king given to the 
Prince of Cond6. The plot was revealed to the Guises, and was 
avenged by the execution of more than a thousand of the Hugue- 
nots. 

The Massacre of Vassy (1562). — After the short reign of 
Francis II. (i 559-1560), his brother Charles came to the throne 
as Charles IX. He was only ten years of age, so the queen-mother 
assumed the government in his name. Pursuing her favorite 
maxim to rule by setting one party as a counterpoise to the other, 
she gave the Bourbon princes a place in the government, and also 
by a royal edict gave the Huguenots a limited toleration, and for- 
bade their further persecution. 

These concessions in favor of the Huguenots angered the Catho- 
lic chiefs, particularly the Guises ; and it was the violation by the 
adherents of the Duke of Guise of the edict of toleration that 
finally caused the growing animosities of the two parties to break 
out in civil war. While passing through the country with a body 
of armed attendants, at a small place called Vassy, the Duke came 
upon a company of Huguenots assembled in a barn for worship. 
His retainers first insulted and then attacked them, killing about 
forty of the company and wounding many more. 

Under the lead of Admiral Coligny and the Prince of Cond^, 
the Huguenots now rose throughout France. Phihp II. of Spain 
sent an army to aid the Catholics, while Elizabeth of England ex- 
tended help to the Huguenots. 

The Treaty of St. Germain (1570). — Throughout the series of 



THE TREATY OF ST. GERMAIN. 575 

lamentable civil wars ^ upon which France now entered, both parties 
displayed a ferocity of disposition more befitting pagans than 
Christians. But it should be borne in mind that many on both 
sides were actuated by political ambition, rather than by religious 
conviction, knowing little and caring less about the distinctions in 
the creeds for which they were ostensibly fighting. 

Sieges, battles, and truces followed one another in rapid and con- 
fusing succession. Conspiracies, treacheries, and assassinations 
help to fill up the dreary record of the period. The Treaty of 
St. Germain (in 1570) brought a short but, as it proved, delusive 
peace. The terms of the treaty were very favorable to the Hugue- 
nots. They received four towns, — among which was La Rochelle, 
the stronghold of the Huguenot faith, — which they might garrison 
and hold as places of safety and pledges of good faith. 

To cement the treaty, Catherine de Medici now proposed that 
the Princess Marguerite, the sister of Charles IX., should be given 
in marriage to Henry of Bourbon, the new young king of Navarre. 
The announcement of the proposed aUiance caused great rejoicing 

1 What are usually designated as the Fi7'st, Second, and Third Wars were 
really one. The table below exhibits the- wars of the entire period of which 
we are treating. Some make the Religious Wars proper end with the Edict 
of Nantes (1598); others with the fall of La Rochelle (1628). 

First War (ended by Peace of Amboise) 1562-1563. 

Second War (ended by Peace of Longjumeau) 1 567-1 568. 

Third W^ar (ended by Peace of St. Germain) 1568-15 70. 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24 1572- 

Fourth War (ended by Peace of La Rochelle) 15 72-1 5 73. 

Fifth War (ended by Peace of Chastenoy) 15 74-1 5 76. 

Sixth War (ended by Peace of Bergerac) 1577- 

Seventh War (ended by Treaty of Fleix) 15 79-1 580. 

Eighth War (War of the Three Henries) 1585-1589. 

Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, secures the throne . . . 1589. 

Edict of Nantes 1598. 

Siege and fall of La Rochelle 1 627-1 628. 

By the fall of La Rochelle the political power of the Huguenots was com- 
pletely prostrated. 



576 THE HUGUENOT WARS. 

among Catholics and Protestants alike, and the chiefs of both 
parties crowded to Paris to attend the wedding, which took place 
on the 1 8th of August, 1572. 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (Aug. 24, 1572).— 
Before the festivities which followed the nuptial ceremonies were 
over, the world was shocked by one of the most awful crimes of 
which history has to tell, — the massacre of the Huguenots in Paris 
on St. Bartholomew's Day. 

The circumstances which led to this fearful tragedy were as 
follows : Among the Protestant nobles who came up to Paris to 
attend the wedding was the Admiral Coligny. Upon coming in 
contact with Charles IX., the Admiral secured almost immediately 
an entire ascendency over his mind. This influence Coligny used 
to draw the king away from the queen-mother and the Guises. 
Fearing the loss of her influence over her son, Catherine resolved 
upon the death of the Admiral. The attempt miscarried, Coligny 
receiving only a slight wound from the assassin's ball. 

The Huguenots at once rallied about their wounded chief with 
loud threats of revenge. Catherine, driven on by insane fear and 
hatred, now determined upon the death of all the Huguenots in 
Paris as the only measure of safety. By the 23d of August, the 
plans for the massacre were all arranged. On the evening of that 
day, Catherine went to her son, and represented to him that the 
Huguenots had formed a plot for the assassination of the royal 
family and the leaders of the Catholic party, and that the utter 
ruin of their house and cause could be averted only by the imme- 
diate destruction of the Protestants within the city walls. The 
order for the massacre was then laid before him for his signature. 
The king at first refused to sign the decree, but, overcome at last 
by the representations of his mother, he exclaimed, " I agree to 
the scheme, provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France to 
reproach me with the deed." 

A little past the hour of midnight on St. Bartholomew's Day 
(Aug. 24, 1572), at a preconcerted signal, — the tolling of a bell, 
— the massacre began. Coligny was one of the first victims. 



MASSACRE OF THE HUGUENOTS. 577 

After his assassins had done their work, they tossed the body out 
of the window of the chamber in which it lay, into the street, in 
order that the Duke of Guise, who stood below, might satisfy him- 
self that his enemy was really dead. For three days and nights 
the massacre went on within the city. King Charles himself is 
said to have joined in the work, and from one of the windows of 
the palace of the Louvre to have fired upon the Huguenots as 
they fled past. The number of victims in Paris is variously esti- 
mated at from 3,000 to 10,000. 

With the capital cleared of Huguenots, orders were issued to 
the principal cities of France to purge themselves in like manner 
of heretics. In many places the instincts of humanity prevailed 
over fear of the royal resentment, and the decree was disobeyed. 
But in other places the orders were carried out, and frightful mas- 
sacres took place. The entire number of victims throughout the 
country was probably between 20,000 and 30,000. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day raised a cry of execra- 
tion in almost every part of the civilized world, among Catholics 
and Protestants alike. Philip H., however, is said to have received 
the news with unfeigned joy ; while Pope Gregory XHI. caused 
a Te Deum, in commemoration of the event, to be sung in the 
church of St. Mark, in Rome. Respecting this it should in jus- 
tice be said that Catholic writers maintain that the Pope acted 
under a misconception of the facts, it having been represented 
to him that the massacre resulted from a thwarted plot of the 
Huguenots against the royal family of France and the Cathohc 
Church. 

Reign of Henry III. (15 74-1589). — The massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew's Day, instead of exterminating heresy in France, only 
served to rouse the Huguenots to a more determined defence 
of their faith. Throughout the last two years of the reign of 
Charles IX., and the fifteen succeeding years of the reign of his 
brother Henry III., the country was in a state of turmoil and war. 
At length the king, who, jealous of the growing power and popu- 
larity of the Duke of Guise, had caused him to be assassinated. 



578 THE HUGUENOT WARS. 

was himself struck down by the avenging dagger of a Dominican 
monk. With him ended the House of Valois-Orleans. 

Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre, who for many years had 
been the most prominent leader of the Huguenots, now came to 
the throne as the first of the Bourbon kings. 

Accession of Henry IV. (1589). — Notwithstanding that the 
doctrines of the reformers had made rapid progress in France 
under the sons of Henry H., still the majority of the nation at the 
time of the death of Henry IH. were Roman Catholics in faith 
and worship. Under these circumstances, we shall hardly expect 
to find the entire nation quietly acquiescing in the accession to 
the French throne of a Protestant prince, and he the leader and 
champion of the hated Huguenots. Nor did Henry secure without 
a struggle the crown that was his by right. The Catholics declared 
for Cardinal Bourbon, an uncle of the king of Navarre, and France 
was thus kept in the whirl of civil war. Ehzabeth of England 
aided the Protestants, and Philip II. of Spain assisted the 
Catholics. 

Henry turns Catholic (1593). — After the war had gone on 
for about four years, — during which - time was fought the noted 
battle of Ivry, in which Henry led his soldiers to victory by tell- 
ing them to follow the white plume on his hat, — the quarrel was 
closed, for the time being, by Henry's abjuration of the Huguenot 
faith, and his adoption of that of the Roman Catholic Church 

(1593)- 
Mingled motives led Henry to do this. He was personally 

liked even by the Catholic chiefs, and he was well aware that it 

was only his Huguenot faith that prevented their being his hearty 

supporters. Hence duty and pohcy seemed to him to concur in 

urging him to remove the sole obstacle in the way of their ready 

loyalty, and thus bring peace and quiet to distracted France. 

The Edict of Nantes (1598). — As soon as Henry had become 

the crowned and acknowledged king of France, he gave himself 

to the work of composing the affairs of his kingdom. The most 

noteworthy of the measures he adopted to this end was the publi- 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 



579 



cation of the celebrated Edict of Nantes (April 15, 1598). This 
decree granted the Huguenots practical freedom of worship, 
opened to them all offices and employments, and gave them as 
places of refuge and defence a large number of fortified towns, 
among which was the important city of La Rochelle. 

The temporary hushing of the long- continued quarrels of the 
Catholics and Protestants by the adoption of the principle of 
religious toleration, paved the way for a revival of the trade and 
industries of the country, which had been almost destroyed by 
the anarchy and waste of the civil wars. France now entered upon 
such a period of prosperity as she had not known for many years. 

Louis XIII. and his Minister, Cardinal Richelieu. — Henry 
IV. was assassinated by a fanatic 
named Ravaillac, who regarded him as 
an enemy of the Roman Catholic 
Church. As his son Louis, who suc- 
ceeded him as Louis XHI. (1610- 
1643), w^s a child of nine years, 
during his minority the govern- 
ment was administered by his mother, 
Mary de Medici. Upon attaining 
his majority, Louis took the govern- 
ment into his own hands. He chose, 
as his chief minister, Cardinal Riche- 
lieu, one of the most remarkable char- 
acters of the seventeenth century. 
From the time that Louis admitted 
the young prelate to his cabinet (in 
1622), the ecclesiastic became the virtual sovereign of France, 
and for the space of twenty years swayed the destinies not only 
of that country, but, it might almost be said, those of Europe as 
well. 

Richelieu's policy was twofold : first, to render the authority of 
the French king absolute in France ; secondly, to make the power 
of France supreme in Europe. 




CARDINAL R.^HE^.E... 
(After a painting in tlie Louvre.) 



580 THE HUGUENOT WARS. 

To attain the first end, Richelieu sought to crush the poHtical 
power of the Huguenots, and to trample out the last vestige of 
independence among the old feudal aristocracy ; to secure the 
second, he labored to break down the power of both branches of 
the House of Hapsburg, — that is, of Austria and Spain. 

For nearly the life- time of a generation Riche]ieu, by intrigue, 
diplomacy, and war, pursued with unrelenting purpose these ob- 
jects of his ambition. His own words best indicate how he pro- 
posed to use his double authority as cardinal and prime minister 
to effect his purpose : " I shall trample all opposition under foot," 
said he, "and then cover all errors with my scarlet robe." 

In the following paragraph we shall speak very briefly of the 
cardinal's dealings with the Huguenots, which feature alone of his 
policy especially concerns us at present. 

Political Power of the Huguenots crushed. — In the prosecu- 
tion of his plans, Cardinal Richelieu's first step was to break down 
the political power of the Huguenot chiefs, who, dissatisfied with 
their position in the government, and irritated by religious griev- 
ances, were revolving in mind the founding in France of a Protes- 
tant commonwealth like that which the Prince of Orange and his 
adherents had set up in the Netherlands. The capital of the new 
Republic was to be La Rochelle, on the southwestern coast of 
France. In 1627, an alliance having been formed between Eng- 
land and the French Protestant nobles, an English fleet and army 
were sent across the Channel to aid the Huguenot enterprise. 

Richelieu now resolved to ruin forever the power of these 
Protestant nobles who were constantly challenging the royal 
authority and threatening the dismemberment of France. Ac- 
cordingly he led in person an army to the siege of La Rochelle, 
which, after a gaflant resistance of more than a year, was compelled 
to open its gates to the cardinal (1628). That the place might 
never again be made the centre of resistance to the royal power, 
Louis ordered that " the fortifications be razed to the ground, in 
such wise that the plough may plough through the soil as through 
tilled land." 



. THE EDICT OF GRACE, 581 

The Huguenots maintained the struggle a few months longer in 
the south of France, but were finally everywhere reduced to sub- 
mission. The result of the war was the complete destruction of 
the pohtical power of the French Protestants. A treaty of peace, 
called the Edict of Grace, negotiated the year after the fall of La 
Rochelle, left them, however, freedom of worship, according to the 
provisions of the Edict of Nantes (see p. 578). 

The Edict of Grace properly marks the close of the religious 
wars which had desolated France for two generations (from 1562 
to 1629). It is estimated that this series of wars and massacres 
cost France a million Hves, and that between three and four 
hundred hamlets and towns were destroyed by the contending 
parties. 

Richelieu and the Thirty Years' War. — When Cardinal 
Richelieu came to the head of affairs in France, there was going 
on in Germany the Thirty Years' War (16 18-1648), of which we 
shall tell in the following chapter. This was very much such a 
struggle between the CathoHc and Protestant German princes as 
we have seen waged between the two rehgious parties in France. 

Although Richelieu had just crushed French Protestantism, he 
now gives aid to the Protestant princes of Germany, because their 
success meant the division of Germany and the humiliation of 
Austria. Richeheu did not live to see the end either of the Thirty 
Years' War or of that which he had begun with Spain ; but this 
foreign poHcy of the great minister, carried out by others, finally 
resulted, as we shall learn hereafter, in the humiliation of both 
branches of the House of Hapsburg, and the lifting of France to 
the first place among the powers of Europe. 




582 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



CHAPTER LIIL 

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

(1618-1648.) 

Nature and Causes of the War. — The long and calamitous 
Thirty Years' War was the last great combat between Protestant- 
ism and Catholicism in Europe. It started as a struggle between 
the Protestant and Catholic princes of Germany, but gradually 
involved almost all the states of the continent, degenerating at 
last into a shameful and heartless struggle for power and territory. 

The real cause of the war was the enmity existing between the 
German Protestants and Catholics. Each party by its encroach- 
ments gave the other occasion for complaint. The Protestants 
at length formed for their mutual protection a league called 
the Evangelical Union (1608). In opposition to the Union, the 
Catholics formed a confederation known as the Holy League 
(1609). All Germany was thus prepared to burst into the flames 
of a rehgious war. 

The Bohemian Period of the War (1618-1623). — The flames 
that were to desolate Germany for a generation were first kindled in 
Bohemia, where were still smouldering embers of the Hussite wars, 
which two centuries before had desolated that land (see p. 505). 
A church which the Protestants maintained they had a right to 
build was torn down by the Catholics, and another was closed. 
The Protestants rose in revolt against their Catholic king, Ferdi- 
nand, elected a new Protestant king,i and drove out the Jesuits. 
The Thirty Years' War had begun (1618). Almost an exact 
century had passed since Luther posted his theses on the door 
of the court church at Wittenberg. It is estimated that at this 
time more than nine-tenths of the population of the empire were 
Protestants. 

1 Frederick V. of the Palatinate, son-in-law of James I. of England. 



THE DANISH PERIOD. 583 

The war had scarcely opened when, the Imperial office falling 
vacant, the Bohemian king, Ferdinand, was elected emperor. With 
the power and influence he now wielded, it was not a difficult 
matter for him to quell the Protestant insurrection in his royal 
dominions. The leaders of the revolt were executed, and the 
reformed faith in Bohemia was almost uprooted. 

The Danish Period (1625-1629). — The situation of affairs at 
this moment in Germany filled all the Protestant rulers of the 
North with the greatest alarm. Christian IV., king of Denmark, 
supported by England and Holland, threw himself into the strug- 
gle as the champion of German Protestantism. He now becomes 
the central figure on the side of the reformers. On the side of the 
Catholics are two noted commanders, — Tilly, the leader of the 
forces of the Holy League, and Wallenstein, the commander of 
the Imperial army. What is known as the Danish period of the 
war now begins (1625). 

The war, in the main, proved disastrous to the Protestant allies, 
and Christian IV. was constrained to conclude a treaty of peace 
with the emperor (Peace of Liibeck, 1629), and retire from the 
struggle. 

By what is known as the Edict of Restitution (1629), the Em- 
peror Ferdinand now restored to the Catholics all the ecclesiasti- 
cal lands and offices in North Germany of which possession had 
been taken by the Protestants in violation of the terms of the 
Peace of Augsburg. This decree gave back to the Catholic 
Church two archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, besides many mon- 
asteries and other ecclesiastical property. 

The Swedish Period (i 630-1 635) : Gustavus Adolphus, Wal- 
lenstein, and Tilly. — At this moment of seeming triumph, Ferdi- 
nand was constrained by rising discontent and jealousies to dismiss 
from his service his most efficient general, Wallenstein, who had 
made almost all classes, save his soldiers, his bitter enemies. In 
his retirement, Wallenstein maintained a court of fabulous magnifi- 
cence. Wherever he went he was followed by an imperial train 
of attendants and equipages. He was reserved and silent, but 



584 - THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

his eye was upon everything going on in Germany, and indeed in 
Europe. He was watching for a favorable moment for revenge, 
and the retrieving of his fortunes. 

The opportunity which Wallenstein, inspired by faith in his star, 
was so confidently awaiting was not long delayed. Only a few 
months before his dismissal from the Imperial service, Gustavus 
Adolphus, king of Sweden, with a veteran and enthusiastic army 
of 16,000 Swedes, had appeared in Northern Germany as the cham- 
pion of the dispirited and leaderless Protestants. The Protestant 
princes, however, through fear of the emperor, as well as from 
lack of confidence in the disinterestedness of the motives of 
Gustavus, were shamefully backward in rallying to the support of 
their deliverer. But through an alliance formed just now with 
France, the Swedish king received a large annual subsidy from 
that country, which, with the help he was receiving from England, 
made him a formidable antagonist. 

The wavering, jealous, and unworthy conduct of the Protestant 
princes now led to a most terrible disaster. At this moment Tilly 
was besieging the city of Magdeburg, which-had dared to resist the 
Edict of Restitution (see p. 583). Gustavus was prevented from 
giving relief to the place by the hindrances thrown in his way by 
the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, both of whom should 
have given him every assistance. In a short time the city was 
obliged to surrender, and was given up to sack and pillage. 
Everything was burned, save two churches and a few hovels. 
30,000 of the inhabitants perished miserably. 

The cruel fate of Magdeburg excited the alarm of the Protestant 
princes. The Elector of Saxony now at once united his forces 
with those of the Swedish king. Tilly was defeated with great 
loss in the celebrated battle of Leipsic (1631), and Gustavus, 
emboldened by his success, pushed southward into the very heart 
of Germany. Attempting to dispute his march, Tilly's army 
was again defeated, and he himself received a fatal wound. In 
the death of Tilly, Ferdinand lost his most trustworthy general 
(1632). 



THE SWEDISH PERIOD. 



585 



The Imperial cause appeared desperate. There was but one man 
in Germany who could turn the tide of victory that was running so 
strongly in ta- 
vor of the Swe- 
dish monarch. 
That man was 
Wallenstein; 
and to him 
the emperor 
now turned. 
This strange 
man had been 
watching with 
secret satis- 
f a c t i o n the 
success of the 
Swedish arms, 
and had even 
offered to Gus- 
tavus his aid, 
promising "to 
chase the emperor and the House of Austria over the Alps." 

To this proud subject of his, fresh from his dalhances with his 
enemies, the emperor now appealed for help. Wallenstein agreed 
to raise an army, provided his control of it should be absolute. 
Ferdinand was constrained to grant all that his old general de- 
manded. Wallenstein now raised his standard, to which ralHed 
the adventurers not only of Germany, but of all Europe as well. 
The array was a vast and heterogeneous host, bound together by 
no bonds of patriotism, loyalty, or convictions, but by the spell 
and prestige of the name of Wallenstein. 

With an army of 40,000 men obecjjent to his commands, 
Wallenstein, after numerous marches and counter-marches, at- 
tacked the Swedes in a terrible battle on the memorable field of 
Llitzen, in Saxony. The Swedes won the day, but lost their leader 
and sovereign (1632). 




DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AT THE BATTLE OF 
LUTZEN. 



586 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Notwithstanding the death of their great king and commander, 
the Swedes did not withdraw from the war. Hence the struggle 
went on, the advantage being for the most part with the Protes- 
tant alhes. Ferdinand, at just this time, was embarrassed by the 
suspicious movements of liis general Wallenstein. Becoming con- 
vinced that he was meditating the betrayal of the Imperial cause, 
the emperor caused him to be assassinated (1634). This event 
marks very nearly the end of the Swedish period of the war. 

The Swedish-French Period (1635-1648). — Had it not been 
for the selfish and ambitious interference of France, the woeful 
war which had now desolated Germany for half a century might 
here have come to an end, for both sides were weary of it and 
ready for negotiations of peace. But Richelieu was not willing 
that the war should end until the House of Austria was thoroughly 
crippled. Accordingly he encouraged Oxenstiern, the Swedish 
chancellor, to persevere in carrying on the war, promising him the 
aid of the French armies. 

The war thus lost in large part its original character of a contest 
between the Catholic and the Protestant princes of Germany, 
and became a political struggle between the House of Austria and 
the House of Bourbon, in which the former was fighting for exist- 
ence, the latter for national aggrandizement. 

The Treaty of Westphalia (1648). — And so the miserable war 
dragged on. The earlier actors in the drama at length passed 
from the scene, but their parts were carried on by others. The 
year 1643, which marks the death of Richelieu, heard the first 
whisperings of peace. Everybody was inexpressibly weary of the 
war, and longed for the cessation of its horrors, yet each one 
wanted peace on terms advantageous to himself. The arrange- 
ment of the articles of peace was a matter of immense difficulty ; 
for the affairs and boundaries of the states of Central Europe were 
in almost hopeless confi^ion. After five years of memorable dis- 
cussion and negotiation, the articles of the celebrated Treaty of 
Westphalia, as it was called, were signed by the different European 
powers. 



THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA. 587 

The chief articles of this important treaty may be made to fall 
under two heads : ( i ) those relating to territorial boundaries, and 
(2) those respecting religion. 

As to the first, these cut short in three directions the actual or 
nominal limits of the Holy Roman Empire. Switzerland and the 
United Netherlands were severed from it ; for though both of these 
countries had been for a long time practically independent of the 
empire, this independence had never been acknowledged in any 
formal way. The claim of France to the three cities of Metz, 
Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine, which places she had held for 
about a century, was confirmed, and a great part of Alsace was 
given to her. Thus on the west, on the southwest, and on the 
northwest, the empire suffered loss. 

Sweden was given cities and territories in Northern Germany 
which gave her control of a long strip of the Baltic shore, a most 
valuable possession. But these lands were not given to the Swed- 
ish king in full sovereignty ; they still remained a part of the Ger- 
manic body, and the king of Sweden as to them became a prince 
of the empire. 

The changes within the empire were many, and some of them 
important. Brandenburg especially received considerable addi- 
tions of territory. 

The articles respecting religion were even more important than 
those which established the metes and bounds of the different 
states. Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were all put upon the 
same footing. The Protestants were to retain all the benefices 
and Church property of which they had possession in 1624. 
Every prince was to have the right to make his religion the religion 
of his people, and to banish all who refused to adopt the estab- 
lished creed : but such non-conformists were to have three years 
in which to emigrate. 

The different states of the empire were left almost independent 
of the emperor. They were given the right to form alliances with 
one another and with foreign princes ; but not, of course, against 
the empire or emperor. This provision made Germany nothing 



588 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

more than a lax confederation, and postponed to a distant future 
the nationahzation of the German states. 

Effects of the War upon Germany. — It is simply impossible 
to picture the wretched condition in which the Thirty Years' War 
left Germany. When the struggle began, the population of the 
country was 30,000,000; when it ended, 12,000,000. Many of 
the once large and flourishing cities were reduced to " mere shells." 
Two or three hundred ill-clad persons constituted the population 
of Berlin. The duchy of Wiirtemburg, which had half a million 
of inhabitants at the commencement of the war, at its close had 
barely 50,000. On every hand were the charred remains of the 
hovels of the peasants and the palaces of the nobility. The lines 
of commerce were broken, and some trades and industries were 
swept quite out of existence. 

The effects upon the fine arts, upon science, learning, and 
morals were even more lamentable. Painting, sculpture, and 
architecture were driven out of the land. The cities which had 
been the home of all these arts lay in ruins. Education was en- 
tirely neglected. For the lifetime of a generation, men had been 
engaged in the business of war, and had allowed their children to 
grow up in absolute ignorance. Moral law was forgotten. Vice, 
nourished by the licentious atmosphere of the camp, reigned 
supreme. " In character, in intelligence, and in morality, the 
German people were set back two hundred years." 

To all these evils were added those of political disunion and 
weakness. The title of emperor still continued to be borne by 
a member of the House of Austria, but it was only an empty name. 
By the Peace of Westphalia, the Germanic body lost even that 
little cohesion which had begun to manifest itself between its 
different parts, and became simply a loose assemblage of virtually 
independent states, of which there were now over two hundred. 
Thus weakened, Germany lost her independence as a nation, while 
the subjects of the numerous petty states became the slaves of 
their ambitious and tyrannical rulers. Worse than all, the over- 
whelming calamities that for the lifetime of a generation had been 



CONCL USION. 589 

poured out upon the unfortunate land, had extinguished the last 
spark of German patriotism. Every sentiment of pride and hope 
in race and country seemed to have become extinct. 

Conclusion. — The treaty of Westphalia is a prominent land- 
mark in universal history. It stands at the dividing line of two 
great epochs. It marks the end of the Reformation Era and the 
beginning of that of the Political Revolution. Henceforth men 
will fight for constitutions, not creeds. We shall not often see 
one nation attacking another, or one party in a nation assaulting 
another party, on account of a difference in religious opinion.^ 

But in setting the Peace of Westphalia to mark the end of the 
religious wars occasioned by the Reformation, we do not mean to 
convey the idea that men had come to embrace the beneficent 
doctrine of religious toleration. As a matter of fact, no real tolera- 
tion had yet been reached — nothing save the semblance of tolera- 
tion. The long conflict of a century and more, and the vicissitudes 
of fortune, which to-day gave one party the power of the persecutor 
and to-morrow made the same sfect the victims of persecution, had 
simply forced all to the practical conclusion that they must tolerate 
one another, — that one sect must not attempt to put another 
down by force. But it required the broadening and liberalizing 
lessons of another full century to bring men to see that the thing 
they must do is the very thing they ought to do, — to make men 
tolerant not only in outward conduct, but in spirit. 

With this single word of caution, we now pass to the study of 
the Era of the Pohtical Revolution, the period marked by the 
struggle between despotic and liberal principles of government. 
And first, we shall give a sketch of absolute monarchy as it ex- 
hibited itself in France under the autocrat Louis XIV. 

1 The Puritan Revolutioii in England may look like a i*eligious war, but we 
shall learn that it was primarily a political contest, — a struggle against des- 
potism in the state. 



^ 



SECOND PERIOD. — THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL 
REVOLUTION. 

(FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA IN 1648 TO THE PRESENT TIME.) 



CHAPTER LIV. 

THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER THE ABSOLUTE 
GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS 'XIV. 

(1643-1715.) 

The Divine Right of Kings. — Louis XIV. stands as the repre- 
sentative of absolute monarchy. This indeed was no new thing in 
the world, but Louis was such an ideal autocrat that somehow he 
made autocratic government strangely attractive. Other kings 
imitated him, and it became the prevailing theory of government 
that kings have a " divine right " to rule, and that the people 
should have no part at all in government. 

According to this theory, the nation is a great family with the 
king as its divinely appointed head. The duty of the king is to 
govern like a father ; the duty of the people is to obey their king 
even as children obey their parents. If the king does wrong, is 
harsh, cruel, unjust, this is simply the misfortune of his people : 
under no circumstances is it right for them to rebel against his 
authority, any more than for children to rise against their father. 
The king is responsible to God alone, and to God the people, 
quietly submissive, must leave the avenging of all their wrongs. 

Before the close of the period upon which we here enter, we 
shall see how this theory of the divine right of kings worked out 
in practice, — how dear it cost both kings and people, and how 
the people by the strong logic of revolution demonstrated that 



BASIS OF THE POWER OF LOUIS XIV. 591 

they are not children but mature men, and have a divine and 
inalienable right to govern themselves. 

The Basis of Louis XIV.'s Power. — The basis of the abso- 
lute power of Louis XIV. was laid by Cardinal Richelieu during 
the reign of Louis XIIL (see p. 580). Besides crushing the 
political power of the Huguenots, and thereby vastly augmenting 
the security and strength of the royal authority, the Cardinal suc- 
ceeded, by various means, — by annulling their privileges, by ban- 
ishment, confiscations, and executions, — in almost extinguishing 
the expiring independence of the old feudal aristocracy, and in 
forcing the once haughty and refractory nobles to yield humble 
obedience to the crown. 

In 1643, barely six months after the death of his great minister, 
Louis XIIL died, leaving the vast power which the Cardinal had 
done so much to consolidate, as an inheritance to his little son, a 
child of five years. 

The Administration of Mazarin. — During the minority of 
Louis the government was in 'the hands of his mother, Anne of 
Austria, as regent. She chose as her prime minister an Italian 
ecclesiastic. Cardinal Mazarin, who, in his administration of affairs, 
followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Richelieu, carrying 
out with great ability the comprehensive policy of that minister. 
France was encouraged to maintain her part — and a very glorious 
part it was, as v/ar goes — in the Thirty Years' War, until Austria 
was completely exhausted, and all Germany indeed almost ruined. 
Even after the Peace of Westphalia, which simply concluded the 
war in Germany, France carried on the war with Spain for ten 
years longer, until 1659, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which 
gave the French the two provinces of Artois and Roussillon, 
asserted the triumph of France over Spain. Richelieu's plan had 
at last, though at terrible cost to France ^ and all Europe, been 

1 The heavy taxes laid to meet the expenses of the wars created great dis- 
content, which during the struggle with Spain led to a series of conspiracies 
or revolts against the government, known as the Wars of the Fronde (1648- 
1652). "Notwithstanding its peculiar character of levity and burlesque, the 



592 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. 

crowned with success. The House of Austria in both its branches 
had been humihated and crippled, and the House of Bourbon was 
ready to assume the lead in European affairs. 

Louis XIV. assumes the Government. — Cardinal Mazarin died 
in 1 66 1. Upon this event, Louis, who was now twenty- three years 
of age, became his own prime minister, and for more than half a 
century thereafter ruled France as an absolute and irresponsible 
monarch. He regarded France as his private estate, and seemed 
to be fully convinced that he had a divine commission to govern 
the French people. It is said that he declared, BEtat, c'est mot, 
"I am the State," meaning that he alone was the rightful legislator, 
judge, and executive of the French nation. The States-General 
was not once convened during his long reign. Richelieu made 
Louis XHI. " the first man in Europe, but the second in his own 
kingdom." Louis XIV. was the first man at home as well as 
abroad. He had able men about him ; but they served instead of 
ruling him. 

Colbert. — Mazarin when dying said to Louis, " Sire, I owe 
everything to you ; but I pay my debt to your majesty by giving 
you Colbert." During the first ten or twelve years of Louis's per- 
sonal reign, this extraordinary man inspired and directed every- 
thing ; but he carefully avoided the appearance of doing so. His 
maxim seemed to be. Mine the labor, thine the praise. He did 
for the domestic affairs of France what Richelieu had done for the 
foreign. So long as Louis followed the policy of Colbert, he gave 
France a truly glorious reign ; but unfortunately he soon turned 
aside from the great minister's pohcy of peace, to seek glory for 
himself and greatness for France through new and unjust en- 
croachments upon neighboring nations. 

The Wars of Louis XIV. — During the period of his personal 
administration of the government, Louis XIV. was engaged in four 

Fronde must be regarded as a memorable struggle of the aristocracy, sup- 
ported by the judicial and municipal bodies, to control the despotism of the 
crown. ... It failed; . . . nor was any farther effort made to resuscitate the 
dormant liberties of the nation until the dawning of the great Revolution." 



THE SPANISH NETHERLANDS. 593 

great wars : (i) A war respecting the Spanish Netherlands (1667- 
1668 ; (2) a war with Holland (1672-16 78) ; (3) the War of the 
Palatinate (1689-169 7) ; and (4) the War of the Spanish Suc- 
cession ( 1 701-17 14). 

All these wars were, on the part of the French monarch, wars 
of conquest and aggression, or were wars provoked by his ambi- 
tious and encroaching policy. The most inveterate enemy of 
Louis during all this period was Holland, the representative and 
champion of liberal, constitutional government. 

The War concerning the Spanish Netherlands (1667-1668). 
— Upon the death of Philip IV. of Spain (1665), Louis immedi- 
ately claimed, in the name of his wife, portions of the Spanish 
Netherlands (see p. 568, n.). The Hollanders were naturally 
alarmed, fearing that Louis would also want to annex their coun- 
try to his dominions. Accordingly they effected what was called 
the Triple Alliance with England and Sweden, checked the French 
king in his career of conquest, and, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, forced him to give up much of the territory he had seized. 

The War with Holland (16 72-1 6 78). — The second war of 
the French king was against Holland, whose interference with his 
plans in the Spanish Netherlands, as well as some uncompli- 
mentary remarks of the Dutch humorists on his personal appear- 
ance, had stirred his resentment. Before entering upon the 
undertaking which had proved too great for Philip H. with the 
resources of two worlds at his command, Louis, by means of 
bribes and the employment of that skilful diplomacy of which he 
was so perfect a master, prudently drew from the side of Holland 
both her allies (Sweden and England), even inducing the English 
king, Charles II., to lend him active assistance. Money also se- 
cured the aid of several princes of Germany. Thus the little 
commonwealth was left alone to contend against fearful odds. 

The brave Hollanders made a stout defence of their land. It 
was even seriously proposed in the States- General, that, rather than 
submit to the tyranny of this second Philip, they should open the 
dykes, bury the country and its invaders beneath the ocean, and 



594 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. 

taking their families and household goods in their ships, seek new 
homes in lands beyond the sea. The desperate resolve was in 
part executed ; for with the French threatening Amsterdam, the 
dykes were cut, and all the surrounding fields were laid under 
water, and the invaders thus forced to retreat. 

The heroic resistance to the intruders made by the Hollanders 
in their half-drowned land, the havoc wrought by the stout Dutch 
sailors among the fleets of the allies, and the diplomacy of the 
Dutch statesmen, who, through skilful negotiations, detached 
almost all of the allies of the French from that side, and brought 
them into alliance with the republic, — all these things soon put 
a very different face upon affairs, and Louis found himself con- 
fronted by the armies of half of Europe. 

For several years the war now went on by land and sea, — in 
the Netherlands, all along the Rhine, upon the English Channel, 
in the Mediterranean, and on the coasts of the New World. At 
length an end was put to the struggle by the Treaty of Nimeguen 
(1678). Louis gave up his conquests in Holland, but kept a 
large number of towns and fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, 
besides the province of Franche-Comte and several Imperial cities 
on his German frontier. 

Thus Louis came out of this tremendous struggle, in which half 
of Europe was leagued against him, with enhanced reputation and 
fresh acquisitions of territory. People now began to call him the 
Grand Monarch. 

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). — Louis now 
committed an act the injustice of which was only equalled by its 
folly, — an act from which may be dated the decline of his power. 
This was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the well-known 
decree by which Henry IV. secured religious freedom to the 
French Protestants (see p. 578). By this cruel measure all the 
Protestant churches were closed, and every Huguenot who refused 
to embrace the Roman Catholic faith was outlawed. The persecu- 
tion which the Huguenots had been enduring and which was now 
greatly increased in violence, is known as the Dragonnades, from 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 595 

the circumstance that dragoons were quartered upon the Protestant 
famines, with full permission to annoy and persecute them in every 
way ''short of violation and death," to the end that the victims of 
these outrages might be constrained to recant, which multitudes 
did. 

Under the fierce persecutions of the Dragonnades, probably 
as many as three hundred thousand of the most skilful and indus- 
trious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. 
Several of the most important and flourishing of the French in- 
dustries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other 
countries, particularly those of Holland and England, were cor- 
respondingly benefited by the energy, skill, and capital which the 
exiles carried to them. Many of the fugitive Huguenots found 
ultimately a refuge in America ; and no other class of emigrants, 
save the Puritans of England, cast 

" Such healthful leaven 'mid the elements 
That peopled the new world." ^ 

The War of the Palatinate (1689-169 7). — The indirect results 
of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were quite as calamitous 
to France as were the direct results. The indignation that the 
barbarous measure awakened among the Protestant nations of 
Europe enabled William of Orange to organize a formidable con- 
federacy against Louis, known as the League of Augsburg (1686). 

Louis resolved to attack the confederates. Seeking a pretext 
for beginning hostilities, he laid claim, in the name of his sister-in- 
law, to portions of the Palatinate, and hurried a large army into 
the country, which was quickly overrun. But being unable to 
hold the conquests he had made, Louis ordered that the country 
be turned into a desert. The Huns of an Attila could not have 
carried out more relentlessly the command than did the soldiers 
of Louis. Churches and abbeys, palaces and cottages, villas and 
cities, were all given to the flames. 

1 See Baird, History of the Htiguenot Emigration to America. 



596 



THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. 



This barbarous act of Louis almost frenzied Germany. Another 
and more formidable coalition, known as the " Grand Alliance/' 
was now formed (1689). It embraced England, Holland, Sweden, 
Spain, the German emperor, the Elector Palatine, and the Electors 
of Bavaria and Saxony. For ten years almost all Europe was 
a great battle-field. Both sides at length becoming weary of the 
contest and almost exhausted in resources, the struggle was closed 
by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). There was a mutual surrender 
of conquests made during the course of the war, and Louis had 

also to give up some of the 
places he had unjustly 
seized before the beginning 
of the conflict. 

War of the Spanish 
Succession (i 701 -i 714). 
— Barely three years 
passed after the Treaty of 
Ryswick before the great 
powers of Europe were 
involved in another war, 
known as the War of the 
Spanish Succession. 

The circumstances out 
of which the war grew were 
these : In 1 700 the king 
of Spain, Charles II., died, 
leaving his crown to PhiHp of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. 
"There are no longer any Pyrenees," was Louis's exultant epigram, 
meaning of course that France and Spain were now practically one. 
England and Holland particularly were alarmed at this virtual 
consoHdation of these two powerful kingdoms. Consequently a 
second Grand Alliance was soon formed against France, the ob- 
ject of which was to dethrone Philip of Anjou and place upon the 
Spanish throne Charles, Archduke of Austria. The two greatest 
generals of the alUes were the famous Duke of Marlborough (John 




DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. 
(After a painting by F. Kneller.) 



WAJ^ OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 597 

Churchill), the ablest commander, except Wellington perhaps, that 
England has ever produced, and the hardly less noted Prince 
Eugene of Savoy. 

For thirteen years all Europe was shaken with war. During the 
progress of the struggle were fought some of the most memorable 
battles in European history, — Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, 
and Malplaquet, — in all of which the genius of Marlborough and 
the consummate skill of Prince Eugene won splendid victories for 
the allies. 

Finally, changes wrought by death in the House of Austria 
brought the Archduke Charles to the imperial throne. This 
changed the whole aspect of the Spanish question, for now to 
place Charles upon the Spanish throne also would be to give him 
a dangerous preponderance of power, would be, in fact, to re- 
establish the great monarchy of Charles V. Consequently the 
Grand Alliance fell to pieces, and the war was ended by the 
treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastadt (1714). 

By the provisions of these treaties the Bourbon prince of Anjou 
was left upon the Spanish throne, but his kingdom was pared 
away on every side. Gibraltar and the island of Minorca were 
ceded to England ; while Milan, Naples, Sardinia, and the Neth- 
erlands (Spanish) were given to Austria. France was forced to 
surrender to England considerable portions of her possessions in 
the New World, — Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson 
Bay territory. 

Death of the King. — Amidst troubles, perplexities, and afflic- 
tions, Louis XIV. 's long and eventful reign was now drawing to a 
close. The heavy and constant taxes necessary to meet the ex- 
penses of his numerous wars, and to maintain an extravagant court, 
had bankrupted the country, and the cries of his wretched sub- 
jects clamoring for bread could not be shut out of the royal cham- 
ber. Death, too, had invaded the palace, striking down the 
dauphin, the dauphiness, and two grandsons of Louis, leaving as 
the nearest heir to the throne his great-grandson, a mere child. 
On the morning of September ist, 1715, the Grand Monarch 



598 



THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. 



breathed his last, bequeathing to this boy of five years a kingdom 
overwhelmed with debt, and filled with misery, with threatening 
vices and dangerous discontent. 

The Court of Louis XIV. — The Court sustained by the Grand 
Monarch was the most extravagantly magnificent that Europe has 

ever seen. Never since Nero 
erected his Golden House 
upon the burnt district of 
Rome, and ensconcing him- 
self amid its luxurious ap- 
pointments, exclaimed, " Now 
I am housed as a man ought 
^g to be," had prince or king so 
ostentatiously lavished upon 
himself the wealth of an em- 
pire. Louis had half a dozen 
palaces, the most costly of 
which was that at Versailles. 
Upon this and its surround- 
ings he spent fabulous sums. 
The palace itself cost what 
would probably be equal to 
more than ^100,000,000 with 
us. Here were gathered the 
beauty, wit, and learning of 
France. The royal household numbered fifteen thousand per- 
sons, all living in costly and luxurious idleness at the expense of 
the people. 

One element of this enormous family was the great lords of the 
old feudal aristocracy. Dispossessed of their ancient power and 
wealth, they were content now to fill a place in the royal house- 
hold, to be the king's pensioners and the elegant embelHshment of 
his court. 

As we might well imagine, the life of the French court at this 
period was shamefully corrupt. Vice, however, was gilded. The 




LOUIS XIV. IN HIS OLD AGE. 



LITERATURE UNDER LOUIS XIV. 599 

scandalous immoralities of king and courtiers were made attractive 
by the glitter of superficial accomplishment and by exquisite 
suavity and polish of manner. 

But notwithstanding its immorality, the brilliancy of the Court 
of Louis dazzled all Europe. The neighboring courts imitated its 
manners and emulated its extravagances. In all matters of taste 
and fashion France gave laws to the continent, and the French 
language became the court language of the civilized world. 

Literature under Louis XIV. — Louis gave a most liberal en- 
couragement to men of letters, thereby making his reign the 
Augustan Age of French literature. In this patronage Louis was 
not unselfish. He honored and befriended poets and writers of 
every class, because he thus extended the reputation of his court. 
These writers, pensioners of his bounty, filled all Europe with their 
praises of the Great King, and thus made the most ample and 
grateful return to Louis for his favor and liberality. 

Almost every species of literature was cultivated by the French 
writers of this era, yet it was in the province of the Drama that 
the greatest number of eminent authors appeared. The three 
great names here are those of Corneille (i 606-1 684), Racine 
(1639-1699), and Mohere (1622-1673). 

Decline of the French Monarchy under Louis XV. — The as- 
cendency of the House of Bourbon passed away forever with 
Louis XIV. In passing from the reign of the Grand Monarch to 
that of his successor, Louis XV. (17 15-17 74), we pass from the 
strongest and most brilHant reign in French history to the weakest 
and most humiliating. 

France took part, but usually with injury to her military reputa- 
tion, in all the wars of this period. The most important of these 
were the War of the Austrian Succession (see p. 644), and the 
Seven Years' War (see p. 631), known in America as the French 
and Indian War, which resulted in the loss to France of Canada 
in the New World and of her Indian possessions in the Old. 

Though thus shorn of her colonial possessions in all quarters of 
the globe, France managed to hold in Europe the provinces won 



600 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. 

for her by the wars and the diplomacy of Louis XIV., and even 
made some fresh acquisitions of territory along the Rhenish 
frontier. 

But taken all together, the period was one of great national 
humiliation : the French fleet was almost driven from the sea ; 
the martial spirit of the nation visibly declined ; and France, from 
the foremost place among the states of Europe, fell to the position 
of a third or fourth rate power. 




THE ''DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS:' 601 



CHAPTER LV. 

ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS : THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION. 

C1603-1714.) 
I. The First Two Stuarts. 

I . Reign of James the First (1603-1625). 

The "Divine Right" of Kings and the "Royal Touch." — 

With the end of the Tudor Hne (see p. 561), James VI. of Scot- 
land, son of Mary Stuart, came to the EngHsh throne, as James I. 
of England. The accession of the House of Stuart brought Eng- 
land and Scotland under the same sovereign, though each country 
still retained its own ParHament. 

The Stuarts were firm believers in the doctrine of the " Divine 
Right " of kings. They held that hereditary princes are the Lord's 
anointed, and that their authority can in no way be questioned or 
limited by people, priest, or Parliament. James I.'s own words 
were, " As it is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can 
do, so it is high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can 
do, or to say that the king cannot do this or that." 

This doctrine found much support in the popular superstition 
of the " Royal Touch." The king was believed to possess the 
power — a gift transmitted through the royal line of England 
from Edward the Confessor — of healing scrofulous persons by 
the laying on of hands.^ It is simply the bearing of this strange 
superstition upon the doctrine of the divine right of kings that 
concerns us now. "The political importance of this superstition," 

1 Consult Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I. 
p. 73. The French kings were also supposed to possess the same miraculous 
power, inherited, as most believed, from Louis the Saint. 



602 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

observes Lecky, " is very manifest. Educated laymen might deride 
it, but in the eyes of the Enghsh poor it was a visible, palpable 
attestation of the indefeasible sanctity of the royal line. It placed 
the sovereignty entirely apart from the categories of mere human 
institutions." 

By bearing this superstition in mind, it will be easier for us to 
understand how so large a proportion of the people of England 
could support the Stuarts in their extravagant claims, and could 
sincerely maintain the doctrine of the sinfulness of resistance to 
the king. 

The Gunpowder Plot (1605). — In the third year of James's 
reign was unearthed a plot to blow up with gunpowder the Parlia- 
ment Building, upon the opening day of the Session, when king, 
lords, and commons would all be present, and thus to destroy at 
a single blow every branch of the English Government. This 
conspiracy, known as the Gunpowder Plot, was entered into by 
a few Roman Catholics, because they were disappointed in the 
course which the king had taken as regards their religion.^ The 
leader of the conspiracy, Guy Fawkes, was arrested, and after 
being put to the rack, was executed. His chief accomplices were 
also seized and punished. The alarm created by the terrible plot 
led Parliament to enact some very severe laws against all the 
Roman Catholics of the realm. 

Colonies and Trade Settlements. — The reign of James I. is 
signalized by the commencement of that system of colonization 
which has resulted in the estabhshment of the English race in 
almost every quarter of the globe. 

In the year 1607 Jamestown, so named in honor of the king, 
was founded in Virginia. This was the first permanent Enghsh 
settlement within the limits of the United States. In 1620 some 
Separatists, or Pilgrims, who had found in Holland a temporary 
refuge from persecution, pushed across the Atlantic, and amidst 
heroic sufferings and hardships established the first settlement in 

1 Though son of the Catholic Mary Stuart, James had been educated as a 
Protestant. 



JAMES AND THE COMMONS. 603 

New England, and laid the foundations of civil liberty in the 
New World. 

Besides planting these settlements in the New World, the Eng- 
lish during this same reign established themselves in the ancient 
country of India. In 1612 the East India Company, which had 
been chartered by Elizabeth in 1600, established their first trading- 
post at Surat. This was the humble beginning of the gigantic 
English empire in the East. 

Contest between James and the Commons. — We have made 
mention of James's idea of the divine right of kingship. Such a 
view of royal authority and privileges was sure to bring him into 
conflict with Parliament, especially with the House of Commons. 
He was constantly dissolving Parliament and sending the members 
home, because they insisted upon considering subjects which he 
had told them they should let alone. 

The chief matters of dispute between the king and the Com- 
mons were the limits of the authority of the former in matters 
touching legislation and taxation, and the nature and extent of the 
privileges and jurisdictions of the latter. 

As to the limits of the royal power, James talked and acted as 
though his prerogatives were practically unbounded. He issued 
proclamations which in their scope were really laws, and then 
enforced these royal edicts by fines and imprisonment, as though 
they were regular statutes of Parliament. Moreover, taking advan- 
tage of some uncertainty in the law as regards the power of the 
king to collect customs at the ports of the realm, he laid new and 
unusual duties upon imports and exports. James's judges were 
servile enough to sustain him in this course, some of them going 
so far as to say that " the sea-ports are the king's gates, which he 
may open and shut to whom he pleases." 

As to the privileges of the Commons, that body insisted, among 
other things, upon their right to determine all cases of contested 
election of their members, and to debate freely all questions con- 
cerning the common weal, without being liable to prosecution or 
imprisonment for words spoken in the House. James denied 



604 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

that these privileges were matters of right pertaining to the Com- 
mons, and repeatedly intimated to them that it was only through 
his own gracious permission and the favor of his ancestors that 
they were allowed to exercise these liberties at all, and that if 
their conduct was not more circumspect and reverential, he should 
take away their privileges entirely. 

On one occasion, the Commons having ventured to debate 
certain matters of state which the king had forbidden them to 
meddle with, he, in reproving them, made a more express denial 
than ever of their rights and privileges, which caused them, in a 
burst of noble indignation, to enter upon their journal a brave 
protest, known as "The Great Protestation," which deckred that 
" the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of ParHa- 
ment are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of 
the subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs 
concerning the king, state, and defence of the realm .... are 
proper subjects and matter of council and debate in Parliament " 
(1621). 

When intelligence of this action was carried to the king, he 
instantly sent for the journal of the House, and with his own hands 
tore out the leaf containing the obnoxious resolution. Then he 
angrily prorogued Parliament, and even went so far as to imprison 
several of the members of the Commons. In these high-handed 
measures we get a glimpse of the Stuart theory of government, 
and see the way paved for the final break between king and 
people in the following reign. 

King James died in the year 1625, after a reign as sovereign of 
England and Scotland of twenty-two years. 

Literature. — One of the most noteworthy literary labors of the 
reign under review was a new translation of the Bible, known as 
King Jatfies^s Vei^sion. This royal version is the one in general 
use at the present day. 

The most noted writers of James's reign were a bequest to it 
from the brilliant era of Ehzabeth (see p. 560). Sir Walter 
Raleigh, the petted courtier of Elizabeth, fell on evil days after 



LITER A TURE. 



605 



her death. On the charge of taking part in a conspiracy against 
the crown, he was sent to the Tower, where he was kept a pris- 
oner for thirteen years. From the tedium of his long confinement, 
he found reUef in the composition of a History of the World. He 
was at last beheaded. 

The close of the life of the great philosopher Francis Bacon, 
was scarcely less sad than that of Sir Walter Raleigh. He held 
the office of Lord Chancellor, and yielding to the temptations of 




THE TOWER OF LONDON. 



the corrupt times upon which he had fallen, accepted bribes from 
the suitors who brought cases before him. He was impeached 
and brought to the bar of the House of Lords, where he confessed 
his guilt, pathetically appealing to his judges " to be merciful to a 
broken reed." He lived only five years after his fall and disgrace, 
dying in 1626. 

Bacon must be given the first place among the philosophers of 
the English-speaking race. His system is known as the Inductive 



606 



ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 



Method of Pliilosophy. It insists upon experiment and a careful 
observation of facts as the only true means of arriving at a knowl- 
edge of the laws of nature. 

2. Reign of Charles the First (1625-1649). 

The Petition of Right (1628). — Charles I. came to the throne 
with all his father's lofty notions about the divine right of kings. 

Consequently the old contest between 
king and Parliament was straightway 
renewed. The first two Parliaments 
of his reign Charles dissolved speed- 
ily, because instead of voting supplies 
they persisted in investigating public 
grievances. After the dissolution of 
his second Parliament Charles endeav- 
ored to raise the money he needed to 
carry on the government, by means of 
"benevolences" and forced loans. 
But all his expedients failed to meet 
his needs, and he was compelled to fall 
back upon Parliament. The Houses 
met, and promised to grant him gener- 
ous subsidies, provided he would sign 
a certain Petitio7i of Right which they 
had drawn up. Next after Magna 
Charta, this document up to this date 
is the most noted in the constitutional 
history of England. It simply re- 
affirmed the ancient rights and privi- 
leges of the English people as defined 
in the Great Charter and by the good 
laws of Edward I. and Edward III. 
Four abuses were provided against : (i) the raising of money by 
loans, " benevolences," taxes, etc., without the consent of Parlia- 
ment ; (2) arbitrary imprisonment ; (3) the quartering of soldiers in 
private houses — a very vexatious thing ; and (4) trial without jury. 




CHARLES I. (After a painting by 
A. Vandyke.) 



CHARLES RULES WITHOUT PARLIAMENT. 607 

Charles was as reluctant to assent to the Petition as King John 
was to affix his seal to the Magna Charta ; but he was at length 
forced to give sanction to it by the use of the usual formula, '' Let 
it be law as desired" (1628). 

Charles rules without Parliament (i 629-1 640). — It soon 
became evident that Charles was utterly insincere when he put his 
name to the Petition of Right. He immediately violated its pro- 
visions in attempting to raise money by forbidden taxes and loans. 
For eleven years he ruled without Parliament, thus changing the 
government of England from a government by king, lords, and 
commons, to what was in effect an absolute and irresponsible mon- 
archy, like that of France or Spain. 

As is always the case under such circumstances, there were 
enough persons ready to aid the king in his schemes of usurpa- 
tion. Prominent among his unscrupulous agents were his minis- 
ters Thomas Wentworth (Earl of Strafford) and William Laud. 
Wentworth devoted himself to establishing the royal despotism in 
civil matters ; while Laud, who was made Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, busied himself chiefly with exalting above all human interfer- 
ence the king's prerogatives in religious affairs as the supreme 
head of the English Church. 

All these high-handed and tyrannical proceedings of Charles 
and his agents were enforced by certain courts that had been 
wrested from their original purpose and moulded into instruments 
of despotism. These were known as the Council of the Noi-th, the 
Star Chamber, and the High Commission Court} All of these 
courts sat without jury, and being composed of the creatures of 
the king, were of course his subservient instruments. Their decis- 
ions were unjust and arbitrary ; their punishments, harsh and cruel. 

1 The first was a tribunal established by Henry VIIL, and was now em- 
ployed by Wentworth as an instrument for enforcing the king's despotic 
authority in the turbulent northern counties of England. The Star Chamber 
was a court of somewhat obscure origin, which at this time dealt chiefly with 
criminal cases affecting the government, such as riot, libel, and conspiracy. 
The High Commission Court was a tribunal of forty-four commissioners, 
created in Elizabeth's reign to enforce the acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. 



608 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

John Hampden and Ship-Money. — Among the illegal taxes 
levied during this period of tyranny was a species known as ship- 
money, so called from the fact that in early times the kings, when 
the realm was in danger, called upon the sea-ports and maritime 
counties to contribute ships and ship-material for the public ser- 
vice. Charles and his agents, in looking this matter over, con- 
ceived the idea of extending this tax over the inland as well as the 
sea-board counties. 

Among those who refused to pay the tax was a country gentle- 
man, named John Hampden. The case was tried in the Excheq- 
uer Chamber, before all the twelve judges. All England watched 
the progress of the suit with the utmost solicitude. The question 
was argued by able counsel both on the side of Hampden and of 
the crown. Judgment was finally rendered in favor of the king, 
although five of the twelve judges stood for Hampden. The case 
was lost ; but the people, who had been following the arguments, 
were fully persuaded that it went against Hampden simply for the 
reason that the judges stood in fear of the royal displeasure, and 
that they did not dare to decide the case adversely to the crown. 

The arbitrary and despotic character which the government had 
now assumed in both civil and religious matters, and the hopeless- 
ness of relief or protection from the courts, caused thousands to 
seek in the New World that freedom and security which was 
denied them in their own land. 

The Covenanters. — England was almost ready to rise in open 
revolt against the unbearable tyranny. Events in Scotland hastened 
the crisis. The king was attempting to impose the English liturgy 
(slightly modified) upon the Scotch Presbyterians. At Edinburgh 
this led to a riot, one of the women worshippers throwing a stool at 
the bishop w^ho attempted to read the service. The spirit of resist- 
ance spread. All classes, nobles and peasants alike, bound them- 
selves by a solemn covenant to resist to the very last every attempt 
to make innovations in their religion. From this act they became 
known as Covenanters (1638). 

The king resolved to crush the movement by force, but he soon 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 609 

found that war could not be carried on without money, and was 
constrained to summon Parhament in hopes of obtaining a vote of 
suppHes. But instead of making the king a grant of money, the 
Commons first gave their attention to the matter of grievances, 
whereupon Charles dissolved the Parliament. The Scottish forces 
crossed the border, and the king, helpless, with an empty treasury 
and a seditious army, was forced again to summon the two Houses. 

The Long Parliament. — Under this call met on November 3, 
1640, that Parliament which, from the circumstance of its lasting 
over twelve years, became known as the Long Parliament. The 
members of the Commons of this Parliament were stern and deter- 
mined men, who were resolved to put a check to the despotic 
course of the king. 

Almost the first act of the Commons was the impeachment and 
trial of Strafford and Laud, as the most prominent instruments of 
the king's tyranny and usurpation. Both were finally brought to 
the block. The three iniquitous and illegal courts of which we 
have spoken (see p. 607) were abohshed. And the Commons, 
to secure themselves against dissolution before their work was 
done, enacted a law which provided that they should not be ad- 
journed or dissolved without their own consent. 

Charles's Attempt to seize the Five Members. — An act of 
violence on the part of Charles now precipitated the nation into 
the gulf of civil war, towards which events had been so rapidly 
drifting. With the design of overawing the Commons, the king 
made a charge of treason against five of the leading members, 
among whom were Hampden and Pym, and sent officers to effect 
their arrest; but the accused were not to be found. The next 
day Charles himself, accompanied to the door of the chamber 
by armed attendants, went to the House, for the purpose of seizing 
the five members ; but, having been forewarned of the king's 
intention, they had withdrawn from the hall. The king was not 
long in reahzing the state of affairs, and with the observation, " I 
see the birds have flown," withdrew from the chamber. 

Charles had taken a fatal step. The nation could not forgive 



610 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

the insult offered to its representatives. All London rose in arms. 
The king, frightened by the storm which he had raised, fled from 
the city to York. From this flight of Charles from London, may 
be dated the beginning of the Civil War (Jan. lo, 1642). 

Having now traced the events which led up to this open strife 
between the king and his people, we shall pass very lightly over 
the incidents of the struggle itself, and hasten to speak of the 
Commonwealth, to the establishment of which the struggle led. 



3. The Civil War (i 642-1 649). 

The Beginning. — After the flight of the king, negotiations were 
entered into between him and Parliament with a view to a recon- 
ciliation. The demands of Parliament were that the militia, the 
services of the Church, the education and marriage of the king's 
children, and many other matters should be subject to the control 
of the two Houses. In making all these demands Parhament had 
manifestly gone to unreasonable and unconstitutional lengths ; but 
their distrust of Charles was so profound, that they were unwilling 
to leave in his hands any power or prerogative that might be per- 
verted or abused. Charles refused, as might have been and was 
expected, to accede to the propositions of Parliament, and un- 
furling the royal standard at Nottingham, called upon all loyal 
subjects to rally to the support of their king (Aug. 22, 1642). 

The Two Parties. — The country was now divided into two 
great parties. Those that enlisted under the king's standard — on 
whose side ralHed, for the most part, the nobility, the gentry, and 
the clergy — were known as Royalists, or Cavaliers ; while those 
that gathered about the Parliamentary banner were called Parlia- 
mentarians, or Roundheads, the latter term being applied to them 
because many of their number cropped their hair close to the head, 
simply for the reason that the Cavaliers affected long and flowing 
locks. The Cavaliers, in the main, favored the Established Church, 
while the Roundheads were, in general, Puritans. During the 
progress of the struggle the Puritans split into two parties, or 
sects, known as Presbyterians and Independents. 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 611 

For six years England now suffered even greater evils than those 
that marked that earlier civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses. 

Oliver Cromwell and his "Ironsides." — The war had con- 
tinued about three years when there came into prominence among 
the officers of the Parliamentary forces a man of destiny, one of 
the great characters of history, — Oliver Cromwell. During the 
early campaigns of the war, as colonel of a regiment of cavalry, 
he had exhibited his rare genius as an organizer and disciplinarian. 
His regiment became famous under the name of " Cromwell's Iron- 
sides." It was composed entirely of " men of religion." Swear- 
ing, drinking, and the usual vices of the camp were unknown 
among them. They advanced to the charge singing psalms. Dur- 
ing all the war the regiment was never once beaten. 

The Self -Denying Ordinance (1646). — In the course of the 
war the Puritans, as has been said, became divided into two par- 
ties, the Presbyterians and the Independents. The former desired 
to reestabhsh a limited monarchy ; the latter wished to sweep 
aside the old constitution and form a republic. 

In the third year of the war there arose a struggle as to which 
party should have control of the army. By means of what was 
called the " Self-denying Ordinance," which declared that no 
member of either House should hold a position in the army, the 
Independents effected the removal from their command of sev- 
eral conservative noblemen. Cromwell, as he was a member of 
the House of Commons, should also have given up his command ; 
but the ordinance was suspended in his case, so that he might 
retain his place as lieutenant-general. Sir Thomas Fairfax was 
made commander-in-chief Though Cromwell was nominally sec- 
ond in command, he was now really at the head of the army. 

The " New Model." — Cromwell at once set about to effect the 
entire remodelling of the army on the plan of his favorite Ironsides. 
His idea was that " the chivalry of the Cavalier must be met by 
the religious enthusiasm of the Puritan." The army was reduced 
to 20,000 men — all honest, fervent. God-fearing, psalm-singing 
Puritans. When not fighting, they studied the Bible, prayed and 



612 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

sung hymns. Since Godfrey led his crusaders to the rescue of the 
Holy Sepulchre, the world had not beheld another such army of 
religious enthusiasts. From Cromwell down to the lowest soldier 
of the " New Model/' every man felt called of the Lord to strike 
down all forms of tyranny in Church and State. 

The Battle of Naseby (1645). — The temper of the "New 
Model " was soon tried in the battle of Naseby, the decisive en- 
gagement of the war. The Royalists were scattered to the winds, 
and their cause was irretrievably lost. Charles escaped from the 
field, and ultimately fled into Scotland, thinking that he might 
rely upon the loyalty of the Scots to the House of Stuart ; but on 
his refusing to sign the Covenant and certain other articles, they 
gave him up to the English Parliament. 

"Pride's Purge" (1648). — Now, there were many in the Par- 
liament who were in favor of restoring the king unconditionally to 
his throne, that is, without requiring from him any guaranties that 
he would in the future rule in accordance with the constitution 
and the laws of the land. The Independents, which means Crom- 
well and the army, saw in this possibility the threatened ruin of all 
their hopes, and the loss of all the fruits of victory. A high-handed 
measure was resolved upon, — the exclusion from the House of Com- 
mons of all those members who favored the restoration of Charles. 

Accordingly, an officer by the name of Pride was stationed at 
the door of the hall, to arrest the members obnoxious to the army. 
One hundred and forty members were thus kept from their seats, 
and the Commons thereby reduced to about fifty representatives, 
all of whom of course were Independents. This performance was 
appropriately called " Pride's Purge." It was simply an act of 
military usurpation. 

Trial and Execution of the King. — The Commons thus 
"■ purged " of the king's friends now passed a resolution for the 
immediate trial of Charles for treason. A High Court of Justice, 
comprising 150 members, was organized, before which Charles 
was summoned. Before the close of a week he was condemned 
to be executed " as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and enemy of his 
country." 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 613 

II. The Commonwealth (i 649-1 660). 

Establishment of the Commonwealth. — A few weeks after the 
execution of Charles, the Commons voted to abolish the Monarchy 
and the House of Lords, and to estabhsh a republic, under the 
name of " The Commonweakh." The executive power was lodged 
in a Council of State, composed of forty-one persons. Of this 
body Bradshaw, an eminent lawyer, was the nominal, but Cromwell 
the real, head. 

Troubles of the Commonwealth. — The republic thus born of 
mingled religious and political enthusiasm was beset with dangers 
from the very first. The execution of Charles had alarmed every 
sovereign in Europe. Russia, France, and Holland, all refused to 
have any communication with the ambassadors of the Common- 
wealth. The Scots, who too late repented of having surrendered 
their native sovereign into the hands of his enemies, now hastened 
to wipe out the stain of their disloyalty by proclaiming his son 
their king, with the title of Charles the Second. The impulsive 
Irish also declared for the Prince ; while the Dutch began active 
preparations to assist him in regaining the throne of his unfortunate 
father. In England itself the Royahsts were active and threat- 
ening. 

War with Ireland. — The Commonwealth, like the ancient 
republic of Rome, seemed to gather strength and energy from 
the very multitude of surrounding dangers. Cromwell was made 
Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, and sent into that country to crush 
a rising of the Royalists there. With his Ironsides he made quick 
and terrible work of the conquest of the island. Having taken by 
storm the town of Drogheda (1649), ^^ massacred the entire 
garrison, consisting of three thousand men. About a thousand 
who had sought asylum in a church were butchered there without 
mercy. The capture of other towns was accompanied by massa- 
cres little less terrible. The conqueror's march through the island 
was the devastating march of an Attila or a Zinghis Khan. The fol- 
lowing is his own account of the manner in which he dealt with 



614 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

the captured garrisons : " When they submitted, their officers were 
knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, 
and the rest shipped for Barbadoes [to be sold into slavery]." 

War with Scotland. — Cromwell was called out of Ireland by 
the Council to lead an army into Scotland. The terror of his 
name went before him, and the people fled as he approached. At 
Dunbar he met the Scotch army. Before the terrible onset of the 
fanatic Roundheads the Scots were scattered like chaff before the 
wind (1650). 

The following year, on the anniversary of the Battle of Dunbar, 
Cromwell gained another great victory over the Scottish army at 
Worcester, and all Scotland was soon after forced to submit to 
the authority of the Commonwealth. Prince Charles, after many 
adventurous experiences, escaped across the Channel into Nor- 
mandy. 

Cromwell ejects the Long Parliament (1653). — The war in 
Scotland was followed by one with the Dutch. While this war 
was in progress Parliament came to an open quarrel with the 
army. Cromwell demanded of Parliament their dissolution, and 
the calling of a new body. This they refused ; whereupon, taking 
with him a body of soldiers, Cromwell went to the House, and 
after listening impatiently for a while to the debate, suddenly 
sprang to his feet, and, with bitter reproaches, exclaimed : " I 
will put an end to your prating. Get you gone ; give place to 
better men. You are no Parliament. The Lord has done with 
you." The soldiers rushing in at a preconcerted signal, the hall 
was cleared, and the doors locked (1653). 

In such summary manner the Long Parliament, or the " Rump 
Parliament," as it was called in derision after Pride's Purge, was 
dissolved, after having sat for twelve years. So completely had 
the body lost the confidence and respect of all parties, that 
scarcely a murmur was heard against the illegal and arbitrary mode 
of its dissolution. 

The Little Parliament. — Cromwell now called a new Parlia- 
ment, or more properly a convention, summoning, so far as he 



THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 



615 



might, only religious, God-fearing men. The " Little Parliament," 
as generally called, consisted of 156 members, mainly religious per- 
sons, who spent much of their time in Scripture exegesis, prayer, 
and exhortation. Among them was a London leather- merchant, 
named Praise-God Barebone, who was especially given to these 
exercises. The name amused the people, and they nicknamed 
the Convention the " Praise- 
God Barebone Parliament." 

The Little Parliament sat 
only a few months, during 
which time, however, it really 
did some excellent work, par- 
ticularly in the way of sug- 
gesting important reforms. It 
at length resigned all its pow- 
ers into the hands of Crom- 
well ; and shortly afterwards 
his council of army officers, 
fearing the country would fall 
into anarchy, persuaded him 
— though manifesting reluc- 
tance, he probably was quite 
willing to be persuaded — 
to accept the title of " Lord 
Protector of the Common- 
wealth." 

The Protectorate (1653- 
1659). — Cromwell's power 

was now ahuost unhmited. He was virtually a dictator. His ad- 
ministration was harsh and despotic. He summoned, prorogued, 
and dissolved parliaments. The nation was really under martial law. 
Royahsts and active Roman Catholics were treated with the ut- 
most rigor. A censorship of the Press was established. Scotland 
was overawed by strong garrisons. The Irish Royahsts, rising 
against the "usurper," were crushed with remorseless severity. 




OLIVER CROMWELL. 



616 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

Thousands were massacred, and thousands more were transported 
to the West Indies to be sold as slaves. 

While the resolute and despotic character of Cromwell's govern- 
ment secured obedience at home, its strength and vigor awakened 
the fear as well as the admiration of foreign nations. He gave 
England the strongest, and in many respects the best, government 
she had had since the days of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. 

Cromwell's Death. — Nothwithstanding Cromwell was a man 
of immovable resolution and iron spirit, he felt sorely the burdens 
of his government, and was deeply troubled by the perplexities of 
his position. With his constitution undermined by overwork and 
anxiety, fever attacked him, and with gloomy apprehensions as to 
the terrible dangers into which England might drift after his hand 
had fallen from the helm of affairs, he lay down to die, passing 
away on the day which he had always called his '' fortunate day " 
— the anniversary of his birth^ and also the anniversary of his 
great victories of Dunbar and Worcester (Sept. 3, 1658). 

Richard Cromwell (1658- 1659). — Cromwell with his dying 
breath had designated his son Richard as his successor in the 
office of the Protectorate. Richard was exactly the opposite of 
his father, — - timid, irresolute, and irreligious. The control of 
affairs that had taxed to the utmost the genius and resources 
of the father was altogether too great an undertaking for the inca- 
pacity and inexperience of the son. No one was quicker to 
realize this than Richard himself, and after a rule of a few months, 
yielding to the pressure of the army, whose displeasure he had 
incurred, he resigned the Protectorate. Had he possessed one- 
half the energy and practical genius that characterized his father, 
the crown would probably have become hereditary in the family 
of the Cromwells, and their house might have been numbered 
among the royal houses of England. 

The Restoration (1660). — For some months after the fall of 
the Protectorate the country trembled on the verge of anarchy. 
The gloomy outlook into the future, and the unsatisfactory experi- 
ment of the Commonwealth, caused the great mass of the Eng- 



PURITAN LITERATURE. 617 

lish people earnestly to desire the restoration of the Monarchy. 
Prince Charles, towards whom the tide of returning royalty was 
running, was now in Holland. A race was actually run between 
Monk, the leader of the army, and Parliament, to see which should 
first present him with the invitation to return to his people, and 
take his place upon the throne of his ancestors. Amid the wildest 
demonstrations of joy, Charles stepped ashore on the island from 
which he had been for nine years an exile. As he observed the 
preparations made for his reception, and received from all parties 
the warmest congratulations, he remarked with pleasant satire, " It 
is my own fault that I did not come back sooner, for I find no- 
body who does not tell me he has always longed for my return." 

I. Puritan Literature. 

It lights up the Religious Side of the English Revolution. — 

No epoch in history receives a fresher illustration from the study 
of its literature than that of the Puritan Commonwealth. To 
neglect this, and yet hope to gain a true conception of that won- 
derful episode in the life of the English people by an examination 
of its outer events and incidents alone, would, as Green declares, 
be like trying to form an idea of the life and work of ancient 
Israel from the Ki?igs and the Chronicles, without the Psalms and 
the Prophets. The true character of the English Revolution, 
especially upon its religious side, must be sought in the magnifi- 
cent Epic of Milton and the unequalled Allegory of Bunyan. 

Both of these great works, it is true, were written after the Res- 
toration, but they were both inspired by the same spirit that had 
struck down Despotism and set up the Commonwealth. The 
Epic was the work of a lonely, disappointed Republican ; the 
Allegory, of a captive Puritan. 

Milton (1608-1674) stands as the grandest representative of 
Puritanism. He was the greatest statesman of the Revolution, the 
stoutest champion of Elnglish liberties against the tyranny of the 
House of Stuart. After the beheading of Charles I. he wrote 
a famous work in Latin, entitled The Defeiice of the English 
People, in which he justified the execution of the king. 



618 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

The Restoration forced Milton into retirement, and the last 
fourteen years of his life were passed apart from the world. It 
was during these years that, in loneliness and blindness, he com- 
posed the immortal poems Pa^^adise Lost and Paradise Regained. 
The former is the '' Epic of Puritanism." All that was truest and 
grandest in the Puritan character found expression in the moral ele- 
vation and religious fervor of this the greatest of Christian poems. 

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was a Puritan non-conformist. After 
the Restoration, he was imprisoned for twelve years in Bedford 
jail, on account of non-conformity to the esta.blished worship. It 
was during this dreary confinement that he wrote his Pilgrim's 
Progress, the most admirable allegory in English literature. The 
habit of the Puritan, from constant study of the Bible, to employ 
in all forms of discourse its language and imagery, is best illus- 
trated in the pages of this remarkable work. 

III. The Restored Stuarts. \C 

I. Reign of Charles the Second (166 0-1685). 

Punishment of the Regicides. — The monarchy having been 
restored in the person of Charles II., Parliament extended a gen- 
eral pardon to all who had taken part in the late rebellion, save 
most of the judges who had condemned Charles I. to the block. 
Thirteen of these were executed with the revolting cruelty with 
which treason was then punished, their hearts and bowels being 
cut out of their hving bodies. Others of the regicides were con- 
demned to imprisonment for life. Death had already removed 
the great leaders of the rebellion, Cromwell, Ireton, and Brad- 
shaw, beyond the reach of Royalist hate ; so vengeance was taken 
upon their bodies. These were dragged from their tombs in West- 
minster Abbey, hauled to Tyburn in London, and there, on the 
anniversary of Charles's execution, were hanged, and afterwards 
beheaded (1661). 

The "New Model" is disbanded. — This same Parliament, mind- 
ful of how the army had ruled preceding ones, took care to 



THE CONVENTICLE ACT. 619 

disband, as soon as possible, the " New Model." " With them," in 
the words of the historian Green, " Puritanism laid down the sword. 
It ceased from the long attempt to build up a kingdom of God by 
force and violence, and fell back on its truer work of building up a 
kingdom of righteousness in the hearts and consciences of men." 

On the pretext, however, that the disturbed state of the realm 
demanded special precautions on the part of the government, 
Charles retained in his service three carefully chosen regiments, to 
which he gave the name of Guards. These, very soon augmented 
in number, formed the nucleus of the present standing army of 
England. 

The Conventicle and Five-Mile Acts. — Early in the reign the 
services of the Anglican Church were restored by Parliament, and 
harsh laws were enacted against .all non- conformists. Thus the 
Conventicle Act made it a crime punishable by imprisonment or 
transportation for more than five persons besides the household to 
gather in any house or in any place for worship, unless the service 
was conducted according to the forms of the Established Church. 

The Five-Mile Act forbade any non-conformist minister who re- 
fused to swear that it is unlawful to take arms against the king 
7mder a7iy circumstances, and that he never would attempt to 
make any change in Church or State government, to approach 
within five miles of any city, corporate town, or borough sending 
members to Parliament. This harsh act forced hundreds to give 
up their homes in the towns, and, with great inconvenience and 
loss, to seek new ones in out-of-the-way country places. 

Persecution of the Covenanters. — In Scotland the attempt to 
suppress conventicles and introduce Episcopacy was stubbornly 
resisted by the Covenanters, who insisted on their right to worship 
God in their own way. They were therefore subjected to most 
cruel and unrelenting persecution. They were hunted by English 
troopers over their native moors and among the wild recesses of 
their mountains, whither they secretly retired for prayer and 
worship. The tales of the suffering of the Scotch Covenanters at 
the hands of the English Protestants form a most harrowing 
chapter of the records of the ages of religious persecution. 



620 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

The Fire, the Plague, and the Dutch War. — The years from 
1664 to 1667 were crowded with calamities, — with war, plague, 
and fire. The poet Dryden not inaptly calls the year 1666, in 
which the Great Fire at London added its horrors to those of 
pestilence and war, the Annus Mirabilis, or "Year of Wonders." 

The war alluded to was a struggle between the English and 
the Dutch, which grew out of commercial rivalries (1664-166 7). 
Just before the war began, the English treacherously seized the 
Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in iVmerica, and changed 
its name to New York in honor of the king's brother, the Duke of 
York. 

Early in the summer of 1665 the city of London was swept by 
a woeful plague, the most terrible visitation the city had known since 
the Black Death in the Middle Ages (see p. 485). Within six 
months 100,000 of the population perished. 

The plague was followed, the next year, by the great fire, which 
destroyed 13,000 houses, and a vast number of churches and 
public buildings. The fire was afterwards acknowledged to be, 
like the Great Fire at Rome in Nero's reign, a blessing in disguise. 
The burnt districts were rebuilt in a more substantial way, with 
broader streets and more airy residences, so that London became 
a more beautiful and healthful city than would have been possible 
without the fire. 

Charles's Intrigues with Louis XIV. — Charles inclined to the 
Catholic worship, and wished to reestablish the Roman Catholic 
Church, because he thought it more favorable than the Anglican to 
such a scheme of government as he aimed to set up in England. In 
the year 1670 he made a secret treaty with the French king, the 
terms and objects of which were most scandalous. In return for 
aid which he was to render Louis in an attack upon Holland, he 
was to receive from him a large sum of money ; and in case his 
proposed declaration in favor of the restoration of the Catholic 
Church produced any trouble in the island, the aid of French 
troops. The scheme was never consummated ; but these clan- 
destine negotiations, however, becoming an open secret, made the 



THE ''POPISH PLOrr 621 

people very uneasy and suspicious. This state of the public 
mind led to a serious delusion and panic. 

The "Popish Plot" (1678). — A rumor was started that the 
Catholics had planned for England a St. Bartholomew massacre. 
The king, the members of Parliament, and all Protestants were to 
be massacred, the Catholic Church was to be reestablished, and the 
king's brother James, the Duke of York, a zealous Catholic, was to 
be placed on the throne. Each day the reports of the conspiracy 
grew more exaggerated and wild. Informers sprang up on every 
hand, each with a more terrifying story than the preceding. One 
of these witnesses, Titus Gates by name, a most infamous person, 
gained an extraordinary notoriety in exposing the imaginary plot. 
Many Catholics, convicted solely on the testimony of perjured 
witnesses, became victims of the delusion and fraud. 

The excitement produced by the supposed plot led Parliament 
to pass what was called the Test Act, which excluded Catholics 
from the House of Lords. (They had already been shut out 
from the House of Commons by the oath of Supremacy, which 
was required of commoners, though not of peers.) The disability 
created by this statute was not removed from them until the present 
century, — in the reign of George the Fourth. 

Origin of the Whig and Tory Parties. — Besides shutting Cath- 
olic peers out of Parliament, there were many in both houses who 
were determined to exclude the Duke of York from the throne. 
Those in favor of the measure of exclusion were called Whigs, 
those who opposed it Tories.^ We cannot, perhaps, form a better 
general idea of the maxims and principles of these two parties 
than by calling the Whigs the political descendants of the Round- 
heads, and the Tories of the Cavaliers. Later, they became known 
respectively as Liberals and Conservatives. 

The King's Death. — After a reign of just a quarter of a 
century, Charles died in 1685, and was followed by his brother 
James, whose rule was destined to be short and troubled. 

1 For the meaning of the names Whig and Tory, see Glossa)y. 



622 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

2. Reign of James the Second (i 685-1 688). 

James's Despotic Course.^ — James, like all the other Stuarts, 
held exalted notions of the divine right of kings to rule as they 
please, and at once set about carrying out these ideas in a most 
imprudent and reckless manner. Notwithstanding he had given 
most solemn assurances that he would uphold the Anglican Church, 
he straightway set about the reestablishment of the Roman Cath- 
olic worship. He arbitrarily prorogued and dissolved Parliament, 
The standing army, which Charles had raised to 10,000 men, he 
increased to 20,000, and placed Catholics in many of its most im- 
portant offices. He formed a league against his own subjects with 
Louis XIV. The High Commission Court of Elizabeth, which 
had been abolished by Parliament, he practically restored in a 
new ecclesiastical tribunal presided over by the infamous Jeffries 
(see note, below) . 

The despotic course of the king raised up enemies on all sides. 
No party or sect, save the most zealous Catholics, stood by him. 
The Tory gentry were in favor of royalty, indeed, but not of tyr- 
anny. Thinking to make friends of the Protestant dissenters, 
James issued a decree known as the Declaration of Indulgence, 
whereby he suspended all the laws against non-conformists. This 
edict all the clergy were ordered to read from their pulpits. 
Almost to a man they refused to do so. Seven bishops even 
dared to send the king a petition and remonstrance against his 
unconstitutional proceedings. 

The petitioners were thrust into the Tower, and soon brought 

^ James was barely seated upon the throne before the Duke of Monmouth, 
an illegitimate son of Charles II., who had been in exile in the Netherlands, 
asserted his right to the crown, and at the head of a hundred men invaded 
England. Thousands flocked to his standard, but in the battle of Sedgemoor 
(1685) he was utterly defeated by the royal troops. Terrible vengeance was 
wreaked upon all in any way connected with the rebellion. The notorious 
Chief Justice Jeffries, in what were called the " Bloody Assizes," condemned 
to death 320 persons, and sentenced 841 to transportation. Jeffries conducted 
the so-called trials Math incredible brutality. 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 623 

to trial on the charge of "seditious Hbel." The nation was now 
thoroughly aroused, and the greatest excitement prevailed while 
the trial was progressing. Judges and jury were overawed by the 
popular demonstration, and the bishops were acquitted. The news 
of the result of the trial was received not only by the people, but 
by the army as well, with shouts of joy, which did not fail to reach 
even the dull ears of the king. 

The Revolution of 1688. — The crisis which it was easy to see 
was impending was hastened by the birth of a prince, as this cut 
off the hope of the nation that the crown upon James's death 
would descend to his daughter Mary, now wife of the Prince 
of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland. The prospect of the accession 
in the near future of a Protestant and freedom-loving Prince and 
Princess had reconciled the people to the misgovernment of their 
present despotic and Catholic sovereign. The appearance upon 
the stage of an infant prince gave a wholly different look to affairs, 
and, as we have said, destroyed all hope of matters being righted 
by the ordinary course of events. 

This led the most active of the king's opponents to resolve to 
bring about at once what they had been inclined to wait to have 
accomplished by his death. They sent an invitation to the Prince 
of Orange to come over with such force as he could muster and 
take possession of the government, pledging him the united and 
hearty support of the English nation. William accepted the invi- 
tation, and straightway began to gather his fleet and army for the 
enterprise. 

Meanwhile King James, in his blind and obstinate way, was 
rushing on headlong upon his own destruction. He seemed abso- 
lutely blind to the steady and rapid drift of the nation towards the 
point of open resistance and revolution. At last, when the sails 
of the Dutch fleet were spread for a descent upon the English 
shores, then the infatuated despot suddenly realized that absolute 
ruin was impending over his throne. He now adopted every 
expedient to avert the threatened evil. He restored to cities the 
charters he had wrongfully taken from them, reinstated magistrates 



624 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

in the positions from which they had been unjustly deposed, at- 
tempted to make friends with the bishops, and promised to sus- 
tain the AngHcan Church and rule in accordance with the consti- 
tution of the realm. 

All concessions and promises, however, were in vain. They 
came too late. The king was absolutely deserted ; army and 
people went over in a body to the Prince of Orange, whose fleet 
had now touched the shores of the island. Fhght alone was left 
him. The queen with her infant child secretly embarked for 
France, where the king soon after joined her. The last act of the 
king before leaving England was to disband the army, and fling 
the Great Seal into the Thames, in order that no parliament might 
be legally convened. 

The first act of the Prince of Orange was to issue a call for a 
Convention to provide for the permanent settlement of the crown. 
This body met January 22, 1689, and after a violent debate de- 
clared the throne to be vacant through James's misconduct and 
flight. They then resolved to confer the royal dignity upon 
William and his wife Mary ars joint sovereigns of the realm. 

But this Convention did not repeat the error of the Parliament 
that restored Charles II., and give the crown to the Prince and 
Princess without proper safeguards and guaranties for the conduct 
of the government according to the ancient laws of the kingdom. 
They drew up the celebrated Declaration of Rights, which plainly 
rehearsed all the old rights and liberties of Englishmen ; denied 
the right of the king to lay taxes or maintain an army without the 
consent of Parliament ; and asserted that freedom of debate was 
the inviolable privilege of both the Lords and the Commons. 
William and Mary were required to accept this declaration, and to 
agree to rule in accordance with its provisions, whereupon they 
were declared King and Queen of England. In such manner was 
effected what is known in history as "the Revolution of 1688." 

3. Literature of the Restoration. 

It reflects the Immorality of the Age. — The reigns of the 
restored Stuarts mark the most corrupt period in the history of 



LITERATURE OF THE RESTORATION. 625 

English society. The low standard of morals, and the general 
profligacy in manners, especially among the higher classes, are in 
part attributable to the demoralizing example of a shockingly 
licentious and shameless court ; but in a larger measure, perhaps, 
should be viewed as the natural reaction from the over-stern, 
repellent Puritanism of the preceding period. The Puritans un- 
doubtedly erred in their indiscriminate and wholesale denunciation 
of all forms of harmless amusement and innocent pleasure. They 
not only rebuked gaming, drinking, and profanity, and stopped 
bear-baiting, but they closed all the theatres, forbade the May- 
pole dances of the people, condemned as paganish the observance 
of Christmas, frowned upon sculpture as idolatrous and indecent, 
and considered any bright color in dress as utterly incompatible 
with a proper sense of the seriousness of life. 

Now all this was laying too heavy a burden upon human nature. 
The revolt and reaction came, as come they must. Upon the 
Restoration, society swung to the opposite extreme. In place of 
the solemn-visaged, psalm-singing Roundhead, we have the gay, 
roistering Cavalier. Faith gives place to infidelity, sobriety to 
drunkenness, purity to profligacy, economy to extravagance, Bible- 
study, psalm -singing and exhorting to theatre-going, profanity, and 
carousing. 

The literature of the age is a perfect record of this revolt against 
the "sour severity " of Puritanism, and a faithful reflection of the 
unblushing immorality of the times. 

The book most read and praised by Charles II. and his court, 
and the one that best represents the spirit of the victorious party, 
is the satirical poem oi Hudibras by Samuel Butler. The object 
of the work is to satirize the cant and excesses of Puritanism, just 
as \}ii^^ Don Quixote of Cervantes burlesques the extravagances and 
follies of Chivalry. 

So immoral and indecent are the works of the writers for the 
stage of this period that they have acquired the designation of 
"the corrupt dramatists." Among the authors of this species of 
literature was the poet Dryden. 



626 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

IV. The Orange-Stuarts. 
I. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1702). 

The Bill of Rights. — The Revolution of 1688, and the new- 
settlement of the crown upon William and Mary, marks an epoch 
in the constitutional history of England. It settled forever the 
long dispute between king and Parliament — and settled it in 
favor of the latter. The Bill of Rights, — the articles of the Dec- 
laration of Rights (see p. 624) framed into a law, — which was 
one of the earhest acts of the first Parliament under William and 
Mary, in effect " transferred sovereignty from the king to the 
House of Commons." It asserted plainly that the kings of Eng- 
land derive their right and title to rule, not from the accident of 
birth, but from the will of the people, and declared that Parlia- 
ment might depose any king, exclude his heirs from the throne, 
and settle the crown anew in another family. This uprooted 
thoroughly the pernicious doctrine that princes have a divine and 
inalienable right to the throne of their ancestors, and when once 
seated on that throne rule simply as the vicegerents of God, above 
all human censure and control. We shall hear but httle more in 
England of this monstrous theory, which for so long a time over- 
shadowed and threatened the freedom of the English people. 

Mindful of Charles's attempt to reestablish the Roman Catholic 
worship, the framers of this same famous Bill of Rights further 
declared that all persons holding communion with the Church of 
Rome or uniting in marriage with a Roman Catholic, should be 
" forever incapable to possess, inherit, or enjoy the crown and 
government of the realm." Since the Revolution of 1688 no 
one of that faith has worn the English crown. 

The other provisions of the bill, following closely the language 
of the Declaration, forbade the king to levy taxes or keep an army 
in time of peace without the consent of Parliament ; demanded 
that Parliament should be frequently assembled ; reaffirmed, as 
one of the ancient privileges of both Houses, perfect freedom of 
debate ; and positively denied the dispensing power of the crown, 



SETTLEMENT OF THE REVENUE. 627 

that is, the authority claimed by the Stuarts of exempting certain 
persons from the penalty of the law by a royal edict. 

All of these provisions now became inwrought into the English 
Constitution, and from this time forward were recognized as part 
of the fundamental law of the realm. 

Settlement of the Revenue. — The articles of the Bill of Rights 
were made effectual by appropriate legislation. One thing which 
had enabled the Tudors and Stuarts to be so independent of Par- 
liament was the custom which prevailed of granting to each king, 
at the beginning of his reign, the ordinary revenue of the king- 
dom during his life. This income, with what could be raised by 
gifts, benevolences, monopolies, and similar expedients, had en- 
abled despotic sovereigns to administer the government, wage 
war, and engage in any wild enterprise just as his own individual 
caprice or passion might dictate. All this was now changed. 
Parliament, instead of granting William the revenue for life, re- 
stricted the grant to a single year, and made it a penal offence for 
the officers of the treasury to pay out money otherwise than 
ordered by Parliament. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of this change in the 
English Constitution. It is this control of the purse of the nation 
which has made the Commons — for all money bills must originate 
in the Lower House — the actual seat of government, constitut- 
ing them the arbiters of peace and war. By simply refusing to 
vote supplies, they can paralyze instantly the arm of the king.^ 

James attempts to recover the Throne : Battle of the Boyne 
(1690). — The first years of William's reign were disturbed by the 
efforts of James to regain the throne which he had abandoned. 
In these attempts he was aided by Louis XIV., and by the Jacob- 
ites (from Jacobus, Latin for James), the name given to the 
adherents of the exiled king. The Irish gave Wilham the most 
trouble, but in the decisive battle of the Boyne he gained a great 
victory over them, and soon all Ireland acknowledged his authority. 

Plans and Death of William. — The motive which had most 

1 For the Alutiny Bill, enacted at this time, see Glossary. 



628 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 

strongly urged William to respond to the invitation of the English 
revolutionists to assume the crown of England, was his desire to 
turn the arms and resources of that country against the great 
champion of despotism, and the dangerous neighbor of his own 
native country, Louis XIV. of France. 

The conduct of Louis in lending aid to James in his attempts to 
regain his crown had so inflamed the English that they were quite 
ready to support William in his wars against him, and so the 
English and Dutch sailors fought side by side against the common 
enemy in the War of the Palatinate (see p. 595). 

A short time after the Peace of Ryswick, broke out the War of 
the Spanish Succession (see p. 596). William, as the uncompro- 
mising foe of the ambitious French king, urged the English to 
enter the war against France. An insolent and perfidious act on 
the part of Louis caused the English people to support their king 
in this plan with great unanimity and heartiness. The matter to 
which we refer was this. James IL having died at just this junc- 
ture of affairs, Louis, disregarding his solemn promises, at once 
acknowledged his son, known in history as the " Pretender," as 
"King of Great Britain and Ireland." 

Preparations were now made for the war thus provoked by the 
double sense of danger and insult. In the midst of these prepa- 
rations William was fatally hurt by being thrown from his horse 
(1702). Mary had died in 1694, and as they left no children, 
the crown descended to the Princess Anne, Mary's sister, who had 
married Prince George of Denmark. 

2. Reign of Queen Anne (i 702-1 714). 

War of the Spanish Succession (i 701-17 14). — The War of 
the Spanish Succession covered the whole of the reign of Queen 
Anne. Of the causes and results of this war, and of England's 
part in it, we have spoken in connection with the reign of Louis 
XIV. (see p. 596) ; and so, referring the reader to the account of 
the contest there given, we shall pass to speak of another event 
of a domestic character which signalized the reign of Queen Anne. 



UNION OF THE PARLIAMENTS. 629 

Union of the Parliaments of England and Scotland (1707). — 
We refer to the union of England and Scotland into a single king- 
dom, under the nan^e of Great Britain (1707). It was only the 
two crowns that were united when James I. came to the English 
throne : now the two Fariiaments were united. From this time 
forward the two countries were represented by one Parliament, 
and in time the name ''British" becomes the common designa- 
tion of the inhabitants of England, Wales, and Scotland. The 
union was advantageous to both countries ; for it was a union not 
simply of hands, but of hearts. 

Death of Queen Anne: the Succession. — Queen Anne died 
in the year 1714, leaving no heirs. In the reign of William a 
statute known as the Act of Settlement had provided that the 
crown, in default of heirs of William and Anne, should descend 
to the Electress Sophia of Hanover (grandchild of James I.), or 
her heirs, "being Protestants." The Electress died only a short 
time before the death of Queen Anne ; so, upon that event, the 
crown descended upon the head of the Electress's eldest son 
George, who thus became the founder of a new hne of English 
sovereigns, the House of Hanover, or Brunswick, the family in 
whose hands the royal sceptre still remains. 

Literature under Q,ueen Anne. — The reign of Queen Anne 
is an illustrious one in English literature. Under her began to 
write a group of brilhant authors, whose activity continued on into 
the reign of her successor, George I. Their productions are, many 
of them, of special interest to the historian, because during this 
period there was an unusually close connection between literature 
and politics. Literature was forced into the service of party. A 
large portion of the writings of the era is in the form of political 
pamphlets, wherein all the resources of wit, satire, and literary skill 
are exhausted in defending or ridiculing the opposing principles 
and policies of Whig and Tory. 

The four most prominent and representative authors of the times 
were Alexander Pope (i 688-1 744), Jonathan Swift (166 7-1 745), 
Joseph Addison (1672-1719), and Daniel Defoe (1661-1731). 



630 ENGLAND UNDER THE EARLIER HANOVERIANS. 

In the scientific annals of the period the name of Sir Isaac New- 
ton (164 2-1 727) is most prominent. As the discoverer of the 
law of gravitation and the author of the Principia, his name will 
ever retain a high place among the few who belong through 
their genius or achievements to no single nation or age, but to the 
world. 



V. England under the Earlier Hanovermns.^ 

The Sovereign's Loss of Political Influence. — The new Han- 
overian king, George I. (i 714-172 7), was utterly ignorant of the 
language and the affairs of the people over whom he had been 
called to rule. He was not loved by the English, but he was 
tolerated by them for the reason that he represented Protestantism 
and those principles of political liberty for which they had so long 
battled with their Stuart kings. On account of his ignorance of 
English affairs the king was obliged to intrust to his ministers the 
practical administration of the government. The same was true 
in the case of George II. (172 7-1 760). George III. (1760-1820), 
having been born and educated in England, regained some of the 
old influence of former kings. But he was the last English sovereign 
who had any large personal influence in shaping governmental 
policies. Since his time the English government has been carried 
on in the name of the king by a prime minister, dependent upon 
the will of the House of Commons. This marks an important 
step in the process by which sovereignty has been transferred from 
the Crown to the People. (For later steps, see Chap. LXIII.) 

England and Continental Affairs. — It must be borne in mind 
that the Georges, while kings of England, were also Electors of 
Hanover in Germany. These German dominions of theirs caused 
England to become involved in continental quarrels which really 
did not concern her. Thus she was drawn into the War of the 

1 The sovereigns of the House of Hanover are George I. (1714-1727); 
George II. (i 727-1 760); George III. (i 760-1820); George IV. (1820- 
1830); William IV. (1830-1837); Victoria (1837- )• 



THE PRETENDERS. 631 

Austrian Succession (see p. 644) in which she had no national 
interest, and which resulted in no advantage to the Enghsh people. 
Hence these matters may be passed over by us without further 
notice here. 

The Pretenders. — Several times during the eighteenth century 
the exiled Stuarts attempted to get back the throne they had lost. 
The last of these attempts was made in 1745, when the "Young 
Pretender " (grandson of James II.) landed in Scotland, effected 
a rising of the Scotch Highlanders, worsted the English at Preston 
Pans, and marched upon London. Forced to retreat into Scotland, 
he was pursued by the English, and utterly defeated at the battle of 
Culloden Moor, — and the Stuart cause was ruined forever. 

Old French and Indian War (175 6-1 763). — Just after the 
middle of the eighteenth century there broke out between the 
French and the English colonists in America the so-called Old 
French and Indian War. The struggle became blended with 
what in Europe is known as the Seven Years' War (see p. 645). 
At first the war went disastrously against the English, — Brad- 
dock's attempt against Fort Du Quesne, upon the march to which 
he suffered his memorable defeat in the wilderness, being but one 
of several ill-starred Enghsh undertakings. But in the year 1757, 
the elder WilHam Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham), known as 
" the Great Commoner," came to the head of affairs in England. 
Straightway every department of the government was infused with 
new vigor. His own indomitable will and persistent energy seemed 
to pass into every subordinate to whom he intrusted the execution 
of his plans. The war in America was brought to a speedy and 
triumphant close, the contest being virtually ended by the great 
victory gained by the Enghsh under the youthful Major-General 
Wolfe over the French under Montcalm upon the Heights of 
Quebec (1759). By the Treaty of Paris (1763) France ceded 
to England Canada and all her possessions in North America east 
of the Mississippi River, save New Orleans and a little adjoining 
land (which, along with the French territory west of the Mississippi, 
had already been given to Spain), and two little islands in the 



632 ENGLAND UNDER THE EARLIER HANOVERIANS. 

neighborhood of Newfoundland, which she was allowed to retain 
to dry fish on. 

The American Revolution (1775-1783).— By a violation of 
one of the principles which the English people had so stoutly main- 
tained against the Stuarts, the ruling powers in England now drove 
the American colonies to revolt. A majority in Parliament insisted 
upon taxing the colonists ; the colonists maintained that taxation 
without representation is tyranny, — that they could be justly taxed 
only through their own legislative assemblies. The Government 
refusing to acknowledge this principle, the colonists took up 
arms in defence of those liberties which their fathers had won 
with so hard a struggle from English kings on English soil. The 
result of the war was the separation from the mother-land of the 
thirteen colonies that had grown up along the Atlantic seaboard, — 
and a Greater England began its independent career in the New 
World. 

Legislative Independence of Ireland (1782). — While the 
American War of Independence was going on, the Irish, taking 
advantage of the embarrassment of the English government, de- 
manded legislative independence. Ireland had had a Parliament 
of her own since the time of the conquest of the island by the 
English, but this Irish Parliament was dependent upon the English 
Parliament, which claimed the power to bind Ireland by its laws. 
This the Irish patriots strenuously denied, and now, under the lead 
of the eloquent Henry Grattan, drew up a Declaration of Rights, 
wherein they demanded the legislative independence of Ireland. 
The principle here involved was the same as that for which the 
English colonists in America were at this time contending with 
arms in their hands. Fear of a revolt led England to grant the 
demands of the Irish, and to acknowledge the independence of 
the Irish Parliament. 

Thus both in America and in Ireland the principles of the Polit- 
ical Revolution triumphed. In Ireland, however, the legislative 
independence gained was soon lost (see Chap. LXIIL). 



GENERAL REMARKS. 633 



CHAPTER LVL 

THE RISE OF RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT. 

(1682-1725.) 

General Remarks. — The second great struggle between the 
principles of Liberalism and of Despotism, as represented by the 
opposing parties in the English Revolution, took place in France. 
But before proceeding to speak of the French Revolution, we shall 
first trace the rise of Russia and of Prussia, as these two great 
monarchies were destined to play prominent parts in that tremen- 
dous conflict. We left Russia at the close of the Middle Ages a 
semi-savage, semi-Asiatic power, so hemmed in by barbarian lands 
and hostile races as to be almost entirely cut off from intercourse 
with the civilized world (see p. 508). In the present chapter we 
wish to tell how she pushed her lines out to the seas on every 
side, — to the Caspian, the Euxine, and the Baltic. The main 
interest of our story gathers about Peter the Great, whose almost 
superhuman strength and energy lifted the great barbarian nation' 
to a prominent place among the powers of Europe. 

Accession of Peter the Great (1682). — The royal line estab- 
lished in Russia by the old Norseman Ruric (see p. 507), ended 
in 1589. Then followed a period of confusion and of foreign in- 
vasion, known as the Troublous Times, after which a prince of the 
celebrated house of Romanoff came to the throne. For more than 
half a century after the accession of the Romanoffs, there is httle 
either in the genius or the deeds of any of the line calculated to 
draw our special attention. But towards the close of the seven- 
teenth century there ascended the Russian throne a man whose 
capacity and energy and achievements instantly drew the gaze of 
his contemporaries, and who has elicited the admiration and 
wonder of all succeeding generations. This was Peter I., univer- 



634 



THE RISE OF RUSSIA. 



sally known as Peter the Great, one of the remarkable characters 
of history. He v/as but seventeen years of age when he assumed 
the full responsibihties of government. 

The Conquest of Azof (1696). — At this time Russia possessed 
only one sea-port, Archangel, on the White Sea, which harbor for 
a large part of the year was sealed against vessels by the extreme 

cold of that high latitude. 
Russia, consequently, had no 
marine commerce ; there was ' 
no word iox fleet in the Rus- 
sian language. Peter saw 
clearly that the most urgent 
need of his empire was out- 
lets upon the sea. Hence, 
his first aim was to wrest 
the Baltic shore from the 
grasp of Sweden, and the 
Euxine from the hands of 
the Turks. 

In 1695 Peter sailed down 
the Don and made an attack 
upon Azof, the key to the 
Black Sea, but was unsuc- 
cessful. The next year, how- 
ever, repeating the attempt, 
he succeeded, and thus 
gained his first harbor on 
the south. 

Peter's First Visit to the West (169 7-1698). — With a view^ 
to advancing his naval projects, Peter about this time sent a large 
number of young Russian nobles to Italy, Holland, and England 
to acquire in those countries a knowledge of naval affairs, forbid- 
ding them to return before they had become good sailors. 

Not satisfied with thus sending to foreign parts his young nobil- 
ity, Peter formed the somewhat startling resolution of going abroad 




PETER THE GREAT. 

(After a painting at Hannpton Court, by G. Kneller, 

1698.) 



PETER'S FIRST VISIT TO THE WEST. 635 

himself, and learning the art of ship-building by personal expe- 
rience in the dockyards of Holland. Accordingly, in the year 
1697, leaving the government in the hands qf three nobles, he 
set out incognito for the Netherlands. Upon arriving there he 
proceeded to Zaandam, a place a short distance from Amsterdam, 
and there hired out as a common laborer to a Dutch ship- 
builder. 

Notwithstanding his disguise it was well enough known who 
the stranger was. Indeed there was but little chance of Peter's 
being mistaken for a Dutchman. The way in which he flew about, 
and the terrible energy with which he did everything, set him 
quite apart from the easy-going, phlegmatic Hollanders. 

To escape the annoyance of the crowds at Zaandam, Peter left 
the place, and went to the docks of the East India Company in 
Amsterdam, who set about building a frigate that he might see 
the whole process of constructing a vessel from the beginning. 
Here he worked for four months, being known among his fellow- 
workmen as Baas or Master Peter. 

It was not alone the art of naval architecture in which Peter in- 
terested himself; he attended lectures on anatomy, studied sur- 
gery, gaining some skill in pulling teeth and bleeding, inspected 
paper-mills, flour-mills, printing-presses, and factories, and visited 
cabinets, hospitals, and museums, thus acquainting himself with 
every industry and art that he thought might be advantageously 
introduced into his own country. 

From Holland Master Peter went to England to study her supe- 
rior naval establishment. Here he was fittingly received by King 
William III., who had presented Peter while in Holland with a 
splendid yacht fully armed, and who now made his guest extremely 
happy by getting up for him a sham sea-fight. 

Returning from England to Holland, Peter went thence to 
Vienna, intending to visit Italy ; but hearing of an insurrection at 
home, he set out in haste for Moscow. 

Peter's Keforms. — The revolt which had hastened Peter's return 
from the West was an uprising among the Strelitzes, a body of sol- 



636 THE RISE OF RUSSIA. 

diers numbering 20,000 or 30,000, organized by Ivan the Terrible 
as a sort of imperial body-guard. In their ungovernable turbu- 
lence, they remind us of the Pretorians of Rome. The mutiny 
settled Peter in his determination to rid himself altogether of the 
insolent and refractory body. Its place was taken by a well-dis- 
ciplined force trained according to the tactics of the Western 
nations. 

The disbanding of the seditious guards was only one of the 
many reforms effected by Peter. So intent was he upon thor- 
oughly Europeanizing his country, that he resolved that his 
subjects should literally clothe themselves in the "garments of 
Western Civilization." Accordingly he abolished the long-sleeved, 
long-skirted Oriental robes that were at this time worn, and decreed 
that everybody save the clergy should shave, or pay a tax on his 
beard. We are told that Peter stationed tailors and barbers at 
the gates of Moscow to cut off the skirts and to train the beards 
of those who had not conformed to the royal regulations, and that 
he himself sheared off with his own hands the offending sleeves 
and beards of his reluctant courtiers. The law was gradually re- 
laxed, but the reform became so general that in the best society 
in Russia at the present day one sees only smooth faces and the 
Western style of dress. 

As additional outgrowths of what he had seen, or heard, or had 
suggested to him on his foreign tour, Peter issued a new coinage, 
introduced schools, built factories, constructed roads and canals, 
established a postal system, opened mines, framed laws modelled 
after those of the West, and reformed the government of the towns 
in such a way as to give the citizens some voice in the management 
of their local affairs, as he had observed was done in the Nether- 
lands and in England. 

Charles XII. of Sweden. — Peter's history now becomes inter- 
twined with that of a man quite as remarkable as himself, Charles 
XII. of Sweden, the " Madman of the North." Charles was but 
fifteen years of age when, in 1697, the death of his father called him 
to the Swedish throne. The dominions which came under his sway 



THE BATTLE OF NARVA. 637 

embraced not only Sweden, but Finland, and large possessions 
along the Southern Baltic, — territory that had been won by the 
arms of his ancestors. 

Taking advantage of Charles's extreme youth, three sovereigns, 
Frederick IV. of Denmark, Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony 
and King of Poland, and Peter the Great of Russia, leagued against 
him (1700), for the purpose of appropriating such portions of his 
dominions as they severally desired to annex to their own. 

The Battle of Narva (1700). But the conspirators had formed 
a wrong estimate of the young Swedish monarch. Notwithstanding 
the insane follies in which he was accustomed to indulge, he 
possessed talent; he had especially a remarkable aptitude for 
military affairs. With a well-trained force — a veteran army that had 
not yet forgotten the discipline of the hero Gustavus Adolphus — 
Charles now threw himself first upon the Danes, and in two weeks 
forced the Danish king to sue for peace ; then he turned his little 
army of 8,000 men upon the Russian forces of 20,000, which were 
besieging the city of Narva, on the Gulf of Finland, and inflicted 
upon them a most ignominious defeat. The only comment of the 
imperturbable Peter upon the disaster was, " The Swedes will have 
the advantage of us at first, but they will teach us how to beat 
them." 

The Founding of St. Petersburg (1703). — After chastising the 
Czar^ at Narva, the Swedish king turned south and marched into 
Poland to punish Augustus for the part he had taken in the con- 
spiracy against him. While Charles was busied in this quarter, 
Peter was gradually making himself master of the Swedish lands 
on the Baltic, and upon a marshy island at the mouth of the Neva 
was laying the foundations of the great city of St. Petersburg, which 
he proposed to make the western gateway of his empire. 

The spot selected by Peter as the site of his new capital was low 
and subject to inundation, so that the labor requisite to make it fit 

1 Czar is probably a contraction of Cczsar. The title was adopted by the 
rulers of Russia because they regarded themselves as the successors and heirs of 
the Caesars of Rome and Constantinople. 



638 THE RISE OF RUSSIA. 

for building purposes was simply enormous. But difficulties never 
dismayed Peter. In spite of difficulties the work was done, and 
the splendid city stands to-day one of the most impressive monu- 
ments of the indomitable and despotic energy of Peter. 

Invasion of Russia by Charles XII. — Meanwhile Charles was 
doing very much as he pleased with the king of Poland. He de- 
feated his forces, overran his dominions, and forced him to 
surrender the Polish crown in favor of Stanislaus Lesczinski (1706). 
With sufficient punishment meted out to Frederick Augustus, 
Charles was ready to turn his attention once more to the Czar. So 
marvellous had been the success attendant upon his arms for the 
past few years, nothing now seemed impossible to him. Deluded 
by this belief, he resolved to march into Russia and dethrone the 
Czar, even as he had dethroned the king of Poland. 

In 1 708, with an army of barely 40,000 men, Charles marched 
boldly across the Russian frontier. At Pultowa the two armies 
met in decisive combat (1709). It was Charles's Waterloo. The 
Swedish army was virtually annihilated. Escaping with a few 
soldiers from the field, Charles fled southward, and found an 
asylum in Turkey.^ 

Close of Peter's Reign. — In 1 721 the Swedish wars which had 
so long disturbed Europe were brought to an end by the Peace of 
Nystadt, which confirmed Russia's title to all the Southern Baltic 
lands that Peter had wrested from the Swedes. The undisputed 
possession of so large a strip of the Baltic seaboard vastly in- 
creased the importance and influence of Russia, which now 
assumed a place among the leading European powers. 

In 1723 troubles in Persia that resulted in the massacre of some 
Russians afforded Peter a pretext for sailing down the Volga and 

1 After spending five years in Turkey, Charles returned to Sweden, and 
shortly afterwards was killed at the siege of Frederickshall, in Norway (1718). 
At the moment of his death he was only thirty-six years of age. He was the 
strangest character of the eighteenth century. Perhaps we can understand 
him best by regarding him, as his biographer Voltaire says we must regard 
him, as an old Norse sea-king, born ten centuries after his time. 



PETER'S CHARACTER AND WORK. 639 

seizing the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, which now became 
virtually a Russian lake. This ended Peter's conquests. The 
Russian colossus now •' stood astride, with one foot on the Baltic 
and the other upon the Caspian." 

Two years later, being then in his fifty-fourth year, Peter died of 
a fever brought on by exposure while aiding in the rescue of some 
sailors in distress, in the Gulf of Finland (1725). 

Peter's Character and Work. — Peter's character stands re- 
vealed in the light of his splendid achievements. Like Charle- 
magne he was a despotic reformer. His theory of government 
was a rough, brutal one, yet the exclamation which broke from 
him as he stood by the tomb of RicheHeu ^ discloses his profound 
desire to rule well: "Thou great man," he exclaimed, "I would 
have given thee half of my dominion to have learned of thee how 
to govern the other half." He planted throughout his vast empire 
the seeds of Western civilization, and by his giant strength hfted 
the great nation which destiny had placed in his hands out of 
Asiatic barbarism into the society of the European peoples. 

The influence of Peter's hfe and work upon the government of 
Russia was very different from what he intended. It is true that 
his aggressive, arbitrary rule strengthened temporarily autocratic 
government in Russia. He destroyed all checks, ecclesiastical 
and military, upon the absolute power of the crown. But in 
bringing into his dominions Western civilization, he introduced 
influences which were destined in time to neutralize all he had 
done in the way of strengthening the basis of despotism. He 
introduced a civilization which fosters popular liberties, and under- 
mines personal, despotic government. 

Reign of Catherine the Great (i 762-1 796). — From the 
death of Peter on to the close of the eighteenth century the 
Russian throne was held, the most of the time, by women, the 
most noted of whom was Catherine H., the Great, "the great- 
est woman probably," according to the admission of an English 

1 In 1 716 Peter made a second journey to the West, visiting France, Den- 
mark, and Holland. 



640 



THE RISE OF RUSSIA. 



historian (McCarthy), "who ever sat on a throne, Elizabeth of 
England not even excepted." But while a woman of great genius, 
she had most serious faults of character, being incredibly profli- 
gate and unscrupulous. 

Carrying, out il h lb ] li \ f F ter the Great, Catherine ex- 
tended vastly 
the limits of 
Russian domin- 
ion, and opened 
the country 
even more 
thoroughly 
than he had 
done to the en- 
trance of West- 
ern influences. 
The most note- 
worthy matters 
of her reign 
were the con- 
quest of the 
Crimea and the 
dismember- 
ment of Po- 
land. 

It was in the year 1783 that Catherine efl"ected the subjugation 
of the Crimea. The possession of this peninsula gave Russia 
dominion on the Black Sea, which once virtually secured by Peter 
the Great had been again lost through his misfortunes. Catherine 
greatly extended the limits of her dominion on the west at the 
f ^^ense of Poland, the partition of which state she planned in 
mnection with Frederick the Great of Prussia and Maria Theresa 
of Austria. On the first division, which was made in 1772, the 
imperial robbers each took a portion of the spoils. In 1793 a 
second partition was made, this time between Russia and Prussia ; 




CATHERINE II. OF RUSSIA, IN HUSSAR UNIFORM. 
(After a painting by Schebanow.) 



CATHERINE THE GREAT. 641 

and then, in 1795, after the suppression of a determined revolt ot 
the Poles under the lead of the patriot Kosciusko, a third and 
final division among the three powers completed the dismember- 
ment of the unhappy state, and erased its name from the roll of 
the nations. The territory gained by Russia in these transactions 
brought her western frontier close alongside the civilization of 
Central Europe. In Catherine's phrase, Poland had become her 
" door mat," upon which she stepped when visiting the West. 

Besides thus widening her empire, Catherine labored to reform 
its institutions and to civilize her subjects. Her labors in better- 
ing the laws and improving the administration of the government, 
have caused her to be hkened to Solon and to Lycurgus ; while 
her enthusiasm for learning and her patronage of letters led 
Voltaire to say, "Light now comes from the North." 

By the close of Catherine's reign Russia was beyond question 
one of the foremost powers of Europe, the weight of her influence 
being quite equal to that of any other nation of the continent. 



^ 



•'i>.' 



642 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 



CHAPTER LVIL 

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

(1740— 1786.) 

The Beginnings of Prussia. — The foundation of the Prussian 
Kingdom was laid in the beginning of the seventeenth century 
( 1 6 1 1 ) by the union of two small states in the North of Germany. 
These were the Mark, or Electorate, of Brandenburg and the 
Duchy of Prussia. Brandenburg had been gradually growing into 
prominence since the tenth century. Its ruler at this time was a 
prince of the now noted House of Hohenzpllern, and was one of the 
seven princes to whom belonged the right of electing the emperor. 

The Great Elector, Frederick William ( 1640-1688). — Although 
this new Prussian power was destined to become the champion of 

a I German Protestantism, it acted a very unwor- 
\ thy and vacillating part in the Thirty Years' 
I War. But just before the close of that strug- 
;; gle a strong man came to the throne, Frederick 
I WilHam, better known as the Great Elector. 
I He infused vigor and strength into every de- 
^= partment of the State, and acquired such a 
THE GREAT ELECTOR, position for his government that at the Peace 
e-piece. of Wcstphalia he was able to secure new terri- 
tory, which greatly enhanced his power and prominence among 
the German princes. 

The Great Elector ruled for nearly half a century. He laid the 
basis of the military power of Prussia by the formation of a stand- 
ing army, and transmitted to his son and successor a strongly cen- 
tralized and despotic authority. 

How the Elector of Brandenburg acquired the Title of King. 
— Frederick III. (1688-1713), son of the Great Elector, was am- 



FREDERICK III. 643 

bitious for the title of king, a dignity that the weight and influence 
won for the Prussian state by his father fairly justified him in 
seeking. He saw about him other princes less powerful than 
himself enjoying this dignity, and he too " would be a king and 
wear a crown." The recent elevation of William of Orange, Stadt- 
holder of Holland, to royal honors in England (see p. 624), stim- 
ulated the Elector's ambition. 

It was necessary of course for Frederick to secure the consent 
of the emperor, a matter some difficulty, for the Catholic ad- 
visers of the Austrian couj . were bitterly opposed to having an 
heretical prince .hus honored and advanced, while the emperor 
himself was not at all pleased with the idea. But the War of the 
Spanish Succession was just about to open, and the emperor was 
extremely anxious to secure Frederick's assistance in the coming 
struggle. Therefore, on condition of his furnishing him aid in the 
war, the emperor con^nted to Frederick's assuming the new title 
and dignity in the Duchy of Prussia, which, unlike Brandenburg, 
did not form part of the empire. 

Accordingly, early in the year 1701, Frederick, amidst imposing 
ceremonies, .was crowned and hailed as king at Konigsberg. 
Hitherto he had been Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of 
Prussia ; now he is Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia. 

Thus was a new king born among the kings of Europe. Thus 
did the house of Austria invest with royal dignity the rival house 
of Hohenzollern. The event is a landmark in German, and even 
in European history. The cue of German history from this on 
is the growth of the power of the Prussian kings, and their steady 
advance to imperial honors, and to the control of the affairs of 
the German race. 

Frederick William I. (171 3-1 740). — The son and successor 
of the first Prussian king, known as Frederick William I., was one 
of the most extraordinary characters in history. He was a strong, 
violent, brutal man, full of the strangest freaks, yet in many re- 
spects just the man for the times. He would tolerate no idlers. 
He carried a heavy cane, which he laid upon the back of every 



644 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 

unoccupied person he chanced to find, whether man, woman, or 
child. 

Frederick William had a mania for big soldiers. With infinite 
expense and trouble he gathered a regiment of the biggest men he 
could find, which was known as the "Potsdam Giants,'*— a reg- 
iment numbering 2400 men, some of whom were eight feet in 
height. Not only were the Goliaths of his own dominions im- 
pressed into the service, but big men in all parts of Europe were 
coaxed, bribed, or kidnapped by Frederick's recruiting officers. 
No present was so acceptable to him as a giant, and by the gift of 
a six-footer more than one prince bought his everlasting favor. 

Rough, brutal tyrant though he was, Frederick William was an 
able and energetic ruler. He did much to consolidate the power 
of Prussia, and at his death in 1 740 left to his successor a con- 
siderably extended dominion, and a splendid army of 80,000 men. 

Frederick the Great (i 740-1 786). — Frederick William was 
followed by his son Frederick II., to whom the world has agreed 
to give the title of " Great." Frederick had a genius for war, and 
his father had prepared to his hand one of the most efficient in- 
struments of the art since the time of the Roman legions. The 
two great wars in which he was engaged, and which raised Prussia 
to the first rank among the military powers of Europe, were the 
War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. 

War of the Austrian Succession (i 740-1 748). — Through the 
death of Charles VI. the Imperial office became vacant on the very 
year that Frederick II. ascended the Prussian throne. Charles 
was the last of the direct male fine of the Hapsburgs, and disputes 
straightway arose respecting the possessions of the House of Aus- 
tria, which resulted in the long struggle known as the War of the 
Austrian Succession. 

Now, not long before the death of Charles, he had bound all 
the leading powers of Europe in a sort of agreement called the 
Pragmatic Sanction, by the terms of which, in case he should leave 
no son, all his hereditary dominions — that is, the kingdom of Hun- 
gary, the kingdom of Bohemia, the archduchy of Austria, and the 



PVAJ^ OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION. 645 

Other possessions of the House of Austria - — should be bestowed 
upon his daughter Maria Theresa. But no sooner was Charles 
dead than a number of princes immediately laid claim to greater 
or lesser portions of these territories. Prominent among these 
claimants was Frederick of Prussia, who claimed Silesia.^ Before 
Maria Theresa could arm in defence of her dominions, Frederick 
pushed his army into Silesia and took forcible possession of it. 

Queen Theresa, thus stripped of a large part of her dominions, 
fled into Hungary, and with all of a beautiful woman's art of per- 
suasion appealed to her Hungarian subjects to avenge her wrongs. 
Her unmerited sufferings, her beauty, her tears, the little princess 
in her arms, stirred the resentment and kindled the ardent loyalty 
of the Hungarian nobles, and with one voice, as they rang their 
swords in their scabbards, they swore to support the cause of their 
queen with their estates and their lives. England and Sardinia 
also threw themselves into the contest on Maria Theresa's side. 
The war lasted until 1 748, when it was closed by the Peace of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, which left Silesia in the hands of Frederick. 

The Seven Years' War (i 756-1 763). — The eight years of 
peace which followed the war of the Austrian Succession were 
improved by Frederick in developing the resources of his king- 
dom and perfecting the organization and discipline of his army, 
and by Maria Theresa in forming a league of the chief European 
powers against the unscrupulous despoiler of her dominions. France, 
Russia, Poland, Saxony, and Sweden, all entered into an alliance 
with the queen. Frederick could at first find no ally save Eng- 
land, — towards the close of the struggle Russia came to his side, 
— so that he was left almost alone to fight the combined armies 
of the Continent. 

At first the fortunes of the war were all on Frederick's side. In 
the celebrated battles of Rossbach, Leuthen, and Zorndorf, he 
defeated successively the French, the Austrians, and the Russians, 

1 Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, set up a claim to the Austrian States. 
France, ever the sworn enemy of the House of Austria, lent her armies to aid 
the Elector in making good his pretensions. 



646 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 

and startled all Europe into an acknowledgment of the fact that 
the armies of Prussia had at their head one of the greatest com- 
manders of the world. His name became a household word, and 
everybody coupled with it the admiring epithet of '' Great." 

But fortune finally deserted him. In sustaining the unequal 
contest, his dominions became drained of men. England with- 
drew her aid, and inevitable ruin seemed to impend over his 
throne and kingdom. A change by death in the government of 
Russia now put a new face upon Frederick's affairs. In 1762 
Ehzabeth of that country died, and Peter III., an ardent admirer 
of Frederick, came to the throne, and immediately transferred the 
armies of Russia from the side of the allies to that of Prussia. 
The alHance lasted only a few months, Peter being deposed and 
murdered by his wife, who now came to the throne as Catherine 
II. She reversed once more the policy of the Government ; but 
the temporary alliance had given Frederick a decisive advantage, 
and the year following Peter's act, England and France were glad to 
give over the struggle and sign the Peace of Paris (1763). Shortly 
after this another peace (the Treaty of Hubertsburg) was arranged 
between Austria and Prussia, and one of the most terrible wars that 
had ever disturbed Europe was over. The most noteworthy result 
of the war was the exalting of the Prussian kingdom to a most 
commanding position among the European powers. 

Frederick's Work : Prussia made a Ifew Centre of German 
Crystallization. — The all-important result of Frederick the Great's 
strong reign was the making of Prussia the equal of Austria, and 
thereby the laying of the basis of German unity. Hitherto Ger- 
many had been trying unsuccessfully to concentrate about Austria ; 
now there is a new centre of crystallization, one that will draw to 
itself all the various elements of German nationality. The history 
of Germany from this on is the story of the rivalry of these two 
powers, with the final triumph of the kingdom of the North, and 
the unification of Germany under her leadership, Austria being 
pushed out as entitled to no part in the affairs of the Fatherland. 
This story we shall tell in a subsequent chapter (see Chap. LXL). 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 647 



CHAPTER LVIIL 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

(1789-1799.) 
I. Causes of the Revolution: the States- General of 1789. 

Introductory. — The French Revolution is in poHtical what the 
German Reformation is in ecclesiastical history. It was the revolt 
of the French people against royal despotism and class privilege. 
"Liberty, EquaKty, Fraternity," was the motto of the Revolu- 
tion. In the name of these principles the most atrocious crimes 
were indeed committed ; but these excesses of the Revolution are 
not to be confounded with its true spirit and aims. The French 
people in 1789 contended for those same principles that the Eng- 
lish Puritans defended in 1640, and that our fathers maintained in 
1776. It is only as we view them in this light that we can feel a 
sympathetic interest in the men and events of this tumultuous 
period of French history. 

Causes of the Revolution. — Chief among the causes of the 
French Revolution were the abuses and extravagances of the 
Bourbon monarchy ; the unjust privileges enjoyed by the nobility 
and clergy ; the wretched condition of the great mass of the 
people ; and the revolutionary character and spirit of French 
philosophy and literature. To these must be added, as a proxi- 
mate cause, the influence of the American Revolution. We shall 
speak briefly of these several matters. 

The Bourbon Monarchy. — We simply repeat what we have 
already learned, when we say that the authority of the French 
crown under the Bourbons had become unbearably despotic and 
oppressive. The hfe of every person in the realm was at the 
arbitrary disposal of the king. Persons were thrown into prison 



648 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

without even knowing the offence for which they were arrested. 
The royal decrees were laws. The taxes imposed by the king 
were simply robberies and confiscations. The public money, thus 
gathered, was squandered in maintaining a court the scandalous 
extravagances and debaucheries of which would shame a Turkish 
Sultan. 

The Nobility. — The French nobihty, in the time of the Bour- 
bons, numbered about 80,000 families. The order was simply the 
remains of the once powerful but now broken-down feudal aristoc- 
racy of the Middle Ages. Its members were chiefly the pensioners 
of the king, the ornaments of his court, living in riotous luxury at 
Paris or Versailles. Stripped of their ancient power, they still 
retained all the old pride and arrogance of their order, and clung 
tenaciously to all their feudal privileges. Although holding one- 
fifth of the lands of France, they paid scarcely any taxes. 

The Clergy. — The clergy formed a decayed feudal hierarchy. 
They possessed enormous wealth, the gift of piety through many 
centuries. Over a third of the lands of the country was in their 
hands, and yet this immense property was almost wholly exempt 
from taxation. The bishops and abbots were usually drawn from 
the families of the nobles, being too often attracted to the service 
of the Church rather by its princely revenues and the social dis- 
tinction conferred by its offices, than by the inducements of piety. 
These " patrician prelates" were hated alike by the humbler clergy 
and the people. 

The Commons. — Below the two privileged orders of the State 
stood the commons, who constituted the chief bulk of the nation, 
and who numbered, at the commencement of the Revolution, prob- 
ably about 25,000,000. It is quite impossible to give any adequate 
idea of the pitiable condition of the poorer classes of the com- 
mons throughout the century preceding the Revolution. The peas- 
ants particularly suffered the most intolerable wrongs. They were 
vexed by burdensome feudal regulations. Thus they were forbid- 
den to fence their fields for the protection of their crops, as the 
fences interfered with the lord's progress in the hunt ; and they 



SPIRIT OF FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 649 

were even prohibited from cultivating their fields at certain sea- 
sons, as this disturbed the partridges and other game. Being kept 
in a state of abject poverty, a failure of crops reduced them to 
absolute starvation. It was not an unusual thing to find women 
and children dead along the roadways. In a word, to use the 
language of one (Fenelon) who saw all this misery, France had 
become " simply a great hospital full of woe and empty of food." 

Revolutionary Spirit of French Philosophy. — French philos- 
ophy in the eighteenth century was sceptical and revolutionary. 
The names of the great writers Rousseau (171 2-1 778) and Vol- 
taire (1694-1778) suggest at once its prevalent tone and spirit. 
Rousseau declared that all the evils which afilict humanity arise 
from vicious, artificial arrangements, such as the Family, the 
Church, and the State. Accordingly he would do away with these 
things, and have men return to a state of nature — that is, to 
simplicity. Savages, he declared, were happier than civilized men. 

The tendency and effect of this sceptical philosophy was to 
create hatred and contempt for the institutions of both State and 
Church, to foster discontent with the established order of things, 
to stir up an uncontrollable passion for innovation and change. 

Influence of the American Revolution. — Not one of the least 
potent of the proximate causes of the French Revolution was the 
successful establishment of the American repubhc. The French 
people sympathized deeply with the Enghsh colonists in their 
struggle for independence. Many of the nobility, hke Lafayette, 
offered to the patriots the service of their swords ; and the popular 
feeling at length compelled Louis XVI. to extend to them openly 
the aid of the armies of France. 

The final triumph of the cause of liberty awakened scarcely less 
enthusiasm and rejoicing in France than in America. In this 
young republic of the Western world the French people saw real- 
ized the Arcadia of their philosophers. It was no longer a dream. 
They themselves had helped to make it real. Here the Rights 
of Man had been recovered and vindicated. And now this liberty 
which the French people had helped the American colonists to 
secure, they were impatient to see France herself enjoy. 



650 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

" After US, the Deluge." — The long-gathering tempest is now 
ready to break over France. Louis XV. died in 1774. In the 
early part of his reign his subjects had affectionately called him 
the " Well-beloved," but long before he laid down the sceptre, all 
their early love and admiration had been turned into hatred and 
contempt. Besides being overbearing and despotic, the king was 
indolent, rapacious, and scandalously profligate. During twenty 
years of his reign the king was wholly under the influence of the 
notorious Madame de Pompadour, 

The inevitable issue of this orgie of crime and folly seems to 
have been clearly enough perceived by the chief actors in it, as is 
shown by that reckless phrase so often on the lips of the king and 
his favorite — " After us, the Deluge." And after them, the Deluge 
indeed did come. The near thunders of the approaching tempest 
could already be heard when Louis XV. lay down to die. 

Calling of the States-General (1789). — Louis XV. left the 
tottering throne to his grandson, Louis XVI., then only twenty 
years of age. He had recently been married to the fair and bril- 
liant Marie Antoinette, archduchess of Austria. 

The king called to his side successively the most eminent finan- 
ciers and statesmen (Maurepas, Turgot, Necker, and Calonne) as 
his ministers and advisers ; but their policies and remedies availed 
little or nothing. The disease which had fastened itself upon the 
nation was too deep-seated. The traditions of the court, the 
rigidity of long-established customs, and the heartless selfishness 
of the privileged classes, rendered reform and efficient retrench- 
ment impossible. 

In 1787 the king summoned the Notables, a body composed 
chiefly of great lords and prelates, who had not been called to ad- 
vise with the king since the reign of Henry IV. But miserable 
counsellors were they all. Refusing to give up any of their feudal 
privileges, or to tax the property of their own orders that the enor- 
mous public burdens which were crushing the commons might be 
hghtened, their coming together resulted in nothing. 

As a last resort it was resolved to summon the united wisdom of 



THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 651 

the nation, — to call together the States- General, the almost- 
forgotten assembly, composed of representatives of the three 
estates, — the nobihty, the clergy, and the commons, the latter 
being known as the Tiers Etat, or Third Estate. On the 5th of 
May, 1789, a memorable date, this assembly met at Versailles. It 
was the first time it had been summoned to deliberate upon the 
affairs of the nation in the space of 175 years. It was now com- 
posed of 1,200 representatives, more than one-half of whom were 
deputies of the commons. The eyes of the nation were turned in 
hope and expectancy towards Versailles. Surely if the redemption 
of France could be worked out by human wisdom, it would now 
be effected. 

2. The National, or Constituent Assembltt' 
(June 17, 1789-Sept. 30, 1 791). 

The States-General changed into the National Assembly. — At 

the very outset a dispute arose in the States-General assembly be- 
tween the privileged orders and the commons, respecting the man- 
ner of voting. It had been the ancient custom of the body to vote 
upon all questions by orders ; and thinking that this custom would 
prevail in the present assembly, the king and his counsellors had 
yielded to the popular demand and allowed the Third Estate to 
send to Versailles more representatives than both the other orders. 
The commons now demanded that the voting should be by indi- 
viduals ; for, should the vote be taken by orders, the clergy and 
nobihty by combining could always outvote them. For five weeks 
the quarrel kept everything at a standstill. 

Finally the commons, emboldened by the tone of public opinion 
without, took a decisive, revolutionary step. They declared them- 
selves the National Assembly, and then invited the other two orders 
to join them in their deliberations, giving them to understand that 
if they did not choose to do so, they should proceed to the con- 
sideration of public affairs without them. 

Shut out from the palace, the Third Estate met in one of the 



652 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

churches of Versailles. Many of the clergy had already joined the 
body. Two days later the nobility came. The eloquent Bailly, 
President of the Assembly, in receiving them, exclaimed, "This 
day will be illustrious in our annals ; it renders the family com- 
plete." The States- General had now become in reahty the Na- 
tional Assembly. 

Storming of the Bastile (July 14, 1789). — During the open- 
ing weeks of the National Assembly, Paris was in a state of great 
excitement. The Bastile was the old state prison, the emblem, in 
the eyes of the people, of despotism. A report came that its guns 
were trained on the city ; that provoked a popular outbreak. " Let 
us storm the Bastile," rang through the streets. The mob straight- 
way proceeded to lay siege to the grim old dungeon. In a few 
hours the prison fortress was in their hands. The walls of the 
hated state prison were razed to the ground, and the people danced 
on the spot. The key of the fortress was sent as a " trophy of the 
spoils of despotism " to Washington by Lafayette. 

The destruction by the Paris mob of the Bastile is in the French 
Revolution what the burning of the papal bull by Luther was to 
the Reformation. It was the death- knell not only of Bourbon 
despotism in France, but of royal tyranny everywhere. When the 
news reached England, the great statesman Fox, perceiving its 
significance for liberty, exclaimed, " How much is this the greatest 
event that ever happened in the world, and how much the best ! " 

The Emigration of the Nobles. — The fall of the Bastile left 
Paris in the hands of a triumphant mob. Those suspected of 
sympathizing with the royal party were massacred without mercy. 
The peasantry in many districts, following the example set them 
by the capital, rose against the nobles, sacked and burned their 
castles, and either killed the occupants or dragged them off to 
prison. This terrorism caused the beginning of what is known as 
the emigration of the nobles, their flight beyond the frontiers of 
France. 

"To Versailles." — An imprudent act on the part of the king 
and his friends at Versailles brought about the next episode in the 



" TO VERSAILLES:' 653 

progress of the Revolution. The arrival there of a body of 
troops was made the occasion of a banquet to the officers of 
the regiment. While heated with wine, the young nobles had 
trampled under foot the national tri-colored cockades, and sub- 
stituted for them white cockades, the emblem of the Bourbons. 
The report of these proceedings caused in Paris the wildest excite- 
ment. Other rumors of the intended flight of the king to Metz, 
and of plots against the national cause, added fuel to the flames. 
Besides, bread had failed, and the poorer classes were savage from 
hunger. 

October 5 th a mob of desperate women, terrible in aspect as 
furies, and armed with clubs and knives, collected in the streets of 
Paris, determined upon going to Versailles, and demanding relief 
from the king himself. All efforts to dissuade them from their 
purpose were unavailing, and soon the Parisian rabble was in 
motion. A horrible multitude, savage as the hordes that followed 
Attila, streamed out of the city towards Versailles, about twelve 
miles distant. The National Guards, infected with the delirium 
of the moment, forced Lafayette to lead them in the same direc- 
tion. Thus all day Paris emptied itself into the royal suburbs. 

The mob encamped in the streets of Versailles for the night. 
Early the following morning they broke into the palace, killed two 
of the guards, and battering down doors with axes, forced their 
way to the queen's chamber, who barely escaped with her life to 
the king's apartments. The timely arrival of Lafayette alone 
saved the entire royal family from being massacred. 

The Royal Family taken to Paris. — The mob now demanded 
that the king should return with them to Paris. Their object in 
this was to have him under their eye, and prevent his conspiring 
with the privileged orders to thwart the plans of the revolutionists. 
Louis was forced to yield to the demands of the people. 

The procession arrived at Paris in the evening. The royal fam- 
ily were placed in the Palace of the Tuileries, and Lafayette was 
charged with the duty of guarding the king, who was to be held 
as a sort of hostage for the good conduct of the nobles and for- 



654 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

eign sovereigns while a constitution was being prepared by the 
Assembly. 

Such was what was called the "Joyous Entry " of October 6th. 
The palace at Versailles, thus stripped of royalty and left bespat- 
tered with blood, was never again to be occupied as the residence 
of a king of France. 

The Flight of the King (June 20, 1791). — For two years fol- 
lowing the Joyous Entry there was a comparative lull in the storm 
of the Revolution. The king was kept a sort of prisoner in the 
Tuileries. The National Assembly were making sweeping reforms 
both in Church and State, and busying themselves in framing a 
new constitution. The emigrant nobles watched the course of 
events from beyond the frontiers, not daring to make a move for 
fear the excitable Parisian mob, upon any hostile step taken by 
them, would massacre the entire royal family. 

Could the king only escape from the hands of his captors and 
make his way to the borders of France, then he could place 
himself at the head of the emigrant nobles, and, with foreign aid, 
overturn the National Assembly and crush the revolutionists. The 
flight was resolved upon and carefully planned. Under cover of 
night the entire royal family, in disguise, escaped from the Tui- 
leries, and by post conveyance fled towards the frontier. When 
just another hour would have placed the fugitives in safety among 
friends, the Bourbon features of the king betrayed him, and the 
entire party was arrested and carried back to Paris. 

The attempted flight of the royal family was a fatal blow to the 
Monarchy. Many affected to regard it as equivalent to an act of 
abdication on the part of the king. The people now began to talk 
of a repubhc. 

The Clubs : Jacobins and Cordeliers. — In order to render 
intelligible the further course of the Revolution we must here 
speak of two clubs, or organizations, which came into prominence 
about this time, and which were destined to become more power- 
ful than the Assembly itself, and to be the chief instruments in 
inaugurating the Reign of Terror. These were the societies of the 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 655 

Jacobins and Cordeliers, so called from certain old convents in 
which they were accustomed to meet. The purpose of these clubs 
was to watch for conspiracies of the royalists, and by constant agi- 
tation to keep alive the flame of the Revolution. 

The New Constitution. — The work of the National Assembly 
was now drawing to a close. On the 14th of September, 1791, 
the new constitution framed by that body, and which made the 
government of France a constitutional monarchy, was solemnly 
ratified by the king. The National Assembly, having sat nearly 
three years, then adjourned (Sept. 30, 1791). The first scene 
in the drama of the French Revolution was ended. 

3. The Legislative Assembly (Oct. i, 1791-Sept. 21, 1792). 

The Three Parties. — The new constitution provided for a 
national legislature to be called the Legislative Assembly. This 
body, comprising 745 members, was divided into three parties : 
the Constitutionalists, the Girondists, and the Mountainists. The 
Constitutionalists of course supported the new constitution, being 
in favor of a limited monarchy. The Girondists, so called from 
the name [La Gironde) of the department whence came the most 
noted of its members, wished to establish in France such a republic 
as the American colonists had just set up in the New World. 
The Mountainists, who took their name from their lofty seats in 
the assembly, were radical republicans, or levellers. Many of them 
were members of the Jacobin club or that of the Cordeliers. The 
leaders of this faction were Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, — 
names of terror in the subsequent records of the Revolution. 

War with the Old Monarchies. — The kings of Europe were 
watching with the utmost anxiety the course of events in France. 
They regarded the cause of Louis XVL as their own. If the 
French people should be allowed to overturn the throne of their 
hereditary sovereign, who would then respect the divine rights 
of kings? The old monarchies of Europe therefore resolved 
that the revolutionary movement in France, a movement threat- 
ening all aristocratical and monarchical institutions, should be 



656 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

crushed, and that these heretical French doctrines respecting the 
Sovereignty of the People and the Rights of Man should be proved 
false by the power of royal armies. 

The warlike preparations of Frederick William III. of Prussia 
and the Emperor Francis II., awakened the apprehensions of the 
revolutionists, and led the Legislative Assembly to declare war 
against them (April 20, 1792). A little later, the allied armies of 
the Austrians and Prussians, numbering more than 100,000 men, 
and made up in part of the French emigrant nobles, passed the 
frontiers of France. Thus were taken the first steps in a series of 
wars which were destined to last nearly a quarter of a century, and 
in which France almost single-handed was to struggle against the 
leagued powers of Europe, and to illustrate the miracles possible 
to enthusiasm and genius. 

The Massacre of the Swiss Guards (Aug. 10, 1792). — The 
allies at first gained easy victories over the ill- disciplined forces of 
the Legislative Assembly, and the Duke of Brunswick, at the head 
of an immense army, advanced rapidly upon Paris. An insolent 
proclamation which this commander now issued, wherein he or- 
dered the French nation to submit to their king, and threatened 
the Parisians with the destruction of their city should any harm be 
done the royal family, drove the French people frantic with indig- 
nation and rage. The Palace of the Tuileries, defended by a few 
hundred Swiss soldiers, the remnant of the royal guard, was as- 
saulted. A terrible struggle followed in the corridors and upon 
the grand stairways of the palace. The Swiss stood " steadfast as 
the granite of their Alps." But they were overwhelmed at last, 
and all were murdered, either in the building itself or in the 
surrounding courts and streets. 

The Massacre of September (" Jail Delivery "). — The army of 
the allies hurried on towards Paris to avenge the slaughter of the 
royal guards and to rescue the king. The capital was all excite- 
ment. "We must stop the enemy," cried Danton, "by striking 
terror into the royalists." To this end the most atrocious meas- 
ures were now adopted by the Extremists. It was resolved that all 



THE NATIONAL- CONVENTION. 657 

the royalists confined in the jails of the capital should be mur- 
dered. A hundred or more assassins were hired to butcher the 
prisoners. The murderers first entered the churches of the city, 
and the unfortunate priests who had refused to take oath to 
support the new constitution, were butchered in heaps about the 
altars. The jails were next visited, one after another, the persons 
confined within slaughtered, and their bodies thrown out to the bru- 
tal hordes that followed the butchers to enjoy the carnival of blood. 

The victims of this terrible " September Massacre," as it is 
called, are estimated at from six to fourteen thousand. Europe 
had never before known such a "jail delivery." It was the greatest 
crime of the French Revolution. 

Defeat of the Allies. — Meanwhile, in the open field, the fortunes 
of war inclined to the side of the revolutionists. The French gen- 
erals were successful in checking the advance of the allies, and 
finally at Valmy (Sept. 20, 1792) succeeded in inflicting upon them 
a decisive defeat, which caused their hasty retreat beyond the fron- 
tiers of France. The day after this victory the Legislative Assem.- > 
bly came to an end, and the following day the National Convention 
assembled. 

4. The National Convention (Sept. 21, 1792-Oct. 26, 1795). 

Parties in the Convention. — The Convention, consisting of 
seven hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the 
celebrated freethinker, Tom Paine, was divided into two parties, 
the Girondists and the Mountainists. There were no monarchists ; 
all were republicans. No one dared to speak of a monarchy. 

The Establishment of the Republic (Sept. 21, 1792). — The 
very first act of the Convention on its opening day was to abolish 
the Monarchy and proclaim France a Republic. The motion for 
the abolition of Royalty was not even discussed. " What need is 
there for discussion," exclaimed a delegate, "where all are agreed? 
Courts are the hot-bed of crime, the focus of corruption ; the his- 
tory of kings is the martyrology of nations." 

All titles of nobility were also abolished. Every one was to be 



658 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

addressed simply as citizen. In the debates of the Convention, 
the king was alluded to as Citizen Capet, and on the street the 
shoeblack was called Citizen Shoeblack. 

The day following the Proclamation of the republic (Sept. 22, 
1792) was made the beginning of a new era, the first day of the 
Year I. That was to be regarded as the natal day of Liberty. A 
little later, excited by the success of the French armies, — the Aus- 
trians and Prussians had been beaten, and Belgium had been over- 
run and occupied, — the Convention called upon all nations to rise 
against despotism, and pledged the aid of France to any people 
wishing to secure freedom. 

Trial and Execution of the King (Jan. 21, 1793). — The next 
work of the Convention was the trial and execution of the king. 
On the nth of December, 1792, he was brought before the bar 
of that body, charged with having conspired with the enemies of 
France, of having opposed the will of the people, and of hav- 
ing caused the massacre of the loth of August. The sentence of 
the Convention was immediate death. On Jan. 21, 1793, the 
unfortunate monarch was conducted to the scaffold. 

Coalition against France. — The regicide awakened the most 
bitter hostility against the French revolutionists, among all the 
old monarchies of Europe. The act was interpreted as a threat 
against all kings. A grand coalition, embracing Prussia, Austria, 
England, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Piedmont, Naples, 
the Holy See, and later, Russia, was formed to crush the republi- 
can movement. Armies aggregating more than a quarter of a mil- 
lion of men threatened France at once on every frontier. 

While thus beset with foes without, the republic was threatened 
with even more dangerous enemies within. The people of La 
Vendue, in Western France, who still retained their simple rever- 
ence for Royalty, Nobility, and the Church, rose in revolt against 
the sweeping innovations of the revolutionists. 

To meet all these dangers which threatened the life of the 
new-born republic, the Convention ordered a levy, which placed 
300,000 men in the field. The stirring Marseillaise Hymn,, sung 
by the marching bands, awakened everywhere a martial fervor. 



FALL OF THE GIRONDLSTS. , 659 

The Fall of the Girondists (June 2, 1793). — Gloomy tidings 
came from every quarter, — news of reverses to the armies of the 
repubhc in front of the aUies, and of successes of the counter- 
revolutionists in La Vendee and other provinces. The Mountain- 
ists in the Convention, supported by the rabble of Paris, urged the 
most extreme measures. They proposed that the carriages of the 
wealthy should be seized and used for carrying soldiers to the seat 
of war, and that the expenses of the government should be met 
by forced contributions from the rich. 

The Girondists opposing these communistic measures, a mob, 
80,000 strong, it is asserted, surrounded the Convention, and de- 
manded that the Girondists be given up as enemies of the Repubhc. 
They were surrendered and placed under arrest, a preliminary step 
to the speedy execution of many of them during the opening days 
of the Reign of Terror, which had now begun. 

Thus did the Parisian mob purge the National Convention of 
France, as the army purged Parliament in the English Revolution 
(see p. 612). That mob were now masters, not only of the 
capital, but of France as well. There is nothing before France 
now but anarchy, and the dictator to whom anarchy always gives 
birth. 

The Reign of Ter7'or (June 2, 1793-July 27, 1794). 

Opening of the Reign of Terror. — As soon as the expulsion of 
the Moderates had given the Extremists control of the Convention, 
they proceeded to carry out their policy of terrorism. Supreme 
power was vested in the so-called Committee of Public Safety, 
which became a terrific engine of tyranny and cruelty. Marat 
was president of the Committee, and Danton and Robespierre 
were both members. 

The scenes which now followed are only feebly illustrated by 
the proscriptions of Sulla in ancient Rome (see p. 283). All 
aristocrats, all persons suspected of lukewarmness in the cause of 
liberty, were ordered to the guillotine. Hundreds were murdered 
simply because their wealth was wanted. Others fell, not because 



660 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

they were guilty of any political offence, but on account of having 
in some way incurred the personal displeasure of the dictators. 

Charlotte Corday: Assassination of Marat (July 13, 1793). — 
At this moment appeared the Joan of Arc of the Revolution. A 
maiden of Normandy, Charlotte Corday by name, conceived the 
idea of delivering France from the terrors of proscription and civil 
war, by going to Paris and killing Marat, whom she regarded as 
the head of the tyranny. On pretence of wishing to reveal to him 
something of importance, she gained admission to his rooms and 
stabbed him to the heart. She atoned for the deed under the 
knife of the guillotine. 

Events after the Death of Marat. — The enthusiasm of Char- 
lotte Corday had led her to believe that the death of Marat would 
be a fatal blow to the power of the Mountainists. But it only 
served to drive them to still greater excesses, under the lead of 
Danton and Robespierre. She died to stanch the flow of her 
country's blood ; but, as Lamartine says, '' her poniard appeared 
to have opened the veins of France." The flame of insurrection 
in the departments was quenched in deluges of blood. Some of 
the cities that had been prominent centres of the counter-revolu- 
tion were made a terrible example of the vengeance of the revolu- 
tionists. Lyons was an object of special hatred to the tyrants. 
Respecting this place the Convention passed the following de- 
cree : " The city of Lyons shall be destroyed : every house occupied 
by a rich man shall be demoHshed ; only the dwellings of the 
poor shall remain, with edifices specially devoted to industry, and 
monuments consecrated to humanity and public education." So 
thousands of men were set to work to pull down the city. The 
Convention further decreed that a monument should be erected 
upon the ruins of Lyons with this inscription : " Lyons opposed 
Liberty ! Lyons is no more ! " 

Execution of the Queen and of the Girondists. — The rage of 
the revolutionists was at this moment turned anew against the 
remaining members of the royal family, by the European powers 
proclaiming the Dauphin King of France. The queen, who had 



SWEEPING CHANGES. 661 

now borne nine months' imprisonment in a close dungeon, was 
brought before the terrible Revolutionary Tribunal, a sort of court 
organized to take cognizance of conspiracies against the republic, 
condemned to the guillotine, and straightway beheaded. 

Two weeks after the execution of the queen, twenty-one of the 
chiefs of the Girondists, who had been kept in confinement since 
their arrest in the Convention, were pushed beneath the knife. 
Hundreds of others followed. Day after day the carnival of death 
went on. Seats were arranged for the people, who crowded to the 
spectacle as to a theatre. The women busied their hands with 
their knitting, while their eyes feasted upon the swiftly changing 
scenes of the horrid drama. 

Most illustrious of all the victims after the queen was Madame 
Roland, who was accused of being the friend of the Girondists. 
Woman has always acted a prominent part in the great events of 
French history, because the grand ideas and sentiments which have 
worked so powerfully upon the imaginative and impulsive tempera- 
ment of the men of France, have appealed with a still more fatal 
attraction to her more romantic and generously enthusiastic nature. 

Sweeping Changes and Reforms. — While clearing away the 
enemies of France and of liberty, the revolutionists were also busy 
making the most sweeping changes in the- ancient institutions and 
customs of the land. They hated these as having been established 
by kings and aristocrats to enhance their own importance and 
power, and to enthrall the masses. They proposed to sweep these 
things all aside, and give the world a fresh start. 

A new system of weights and measures, known as the metrical, 
was planned, and a new mode of reckoning time was introduced. 
The names of the months were altered, titles being given them ex- 
pressive of the character of each. Each month was divided into 
three periods of ten days each, called decades, and each day into 
ten parts. The tenth day of each decade took the place of Sun- 
day. The five odd days not provided for in the arrangement were 
made festival days. 

Abolition of Christianity. — With these reforms effected, the 



662 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 



revolutionists next proceeded to the more difficult task of subvert- 
ing the ancient institutions of rehgion. Some of the chiefs of the 
Commune of Paris declared that the Revolution should not rest 
until it had " dethroned the King of Heaven as well as the kings 
of earth." 

An attempt was made by the Extremists to have Christianity 
abolished by a decree of the National Convention ; but that body, 
fearing such an act might alienate many who were still attached to 
the Church, resolved that all matters of creed 
should be left to the decision of the people 
themselves. 

The atheistic chiefs of the Commune of 
the capital now determined to effect their 
purpose through the Church itself. They 
persuaded the Bishop of Paris to abdicate his 
office ; and his example was followed by 
many of the clergy throughout the country. 
The churches of Paris and of other cities 
were now closed, and the treasures of their 
altars and shrines confiscated to the State. 
Even the bells were melted down into can- 
non. The images of the Virgin and of the 
Christ were torn down, and the busts of 
Marat and other patriots set up in their 
stead. And as the emancipation of the 
world was now to be wrought, not by the 
Cross, but by the guillotine, that instrument 
took the place of the crucifix, and was called the Holy Guillotine. 
All the visible symbols of the ancient religion were destroyed. All 
emblems of hope in the cemeteries were obliterated, and over 
their gates were inscribed the words, " Death is eternal sleep." 

The madness of the Parisian people culminated in the worship 
of what was called the Goddess of Reason. A celebrated beauty, 
personating the Goddess, was set upon the altar of Notre Dame as 
the object of homage and adoration. The example of Paris was 




THE GUILLOTINE. 



FALL OF HEBERT AND D ANT ON. 663 

followed in many places throughout France. Churches were every- 
where converted into temples of the new worship. The Sabbath 
having been abohshed, the services of the temple were held only 
upon every tenth day. On that day the mayor or some popular 
leader mounted the altar and harangued the people, dwelling upon 
the news of the moment, the triumphs of the armies of the repub- 
lic, the glorious achievements of the Revolution, and the privilege 
of living in an era when one was oppressed neither by kings on 
earth or by a King in heaven. 

Fall of Hebert and Danton (March and April, 1794). — Not 
quite one year of the Reign of Terror had passed before the rev- 
olutionists, having destroyed or driven into obscurity their common 
enemy, the Girondists, turned upon one another with the ferocity 
of beasts whose appetites has been whetted by the taste of blood. 

During the progress of events the Jacobins had become divided 
into three factions, headed respectively by Danton, Robespierre, 
and Hubert. Danton, though he had been a bold and audacious 
leader, was now adopting a more conservative tone, and was con- 
demning the extravagances and cruelties of the Committee of 
Public Safety, of which he had ceased to be 
a member. 

Hubert was one of the worst demagogue'^ 
of the Commune, the chief and instigator 
of the Parisian rabble. He and his fol 
lowers, the sans-culottes of the capital 
would overturn everything and refound 
society upon communism and atheism. 

ROBESPIERRE 

Robespierre occupied a position mid- 
way between these two, condemning alike the moderatism of 
Danton and the atheistic communism of Hubert. To make his 
own power supreme, he resolved to crush both. 

Hubert and his party were the first to fall, Danton and his 
adherents working with Robespierre to bring about their ruin, for 
the Moderates and Anarchists were naturally at bitter enmity. 

Danton and his friends were the next to follow. Little more 




664 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

than a week had passed since the execution of Hubert before 
Robespierre had effected their destruction, on the charge of con- 
spiring with and encouraging the counter-revolutionists. 

With the Anarchists and Moderates both destroyed, Robespierre 
was now supreme. His ambition was attained. " He stood alone 
on the awful eminence of the Holy Mountain." But his turn 
was soon to come. 

Worship of the Supreme Being. — One of the first acts of the 
dictator was to give France a new religion in place of the worship 
of Reason. Robespierre wished to sweep away Christianity as a 
superstition, but he would stop at deism. He did not believe 
that a state could be founded on atheism. "Atheism," said he, 
"is aristocratic. The idea of a great being who watches over 
oppressed innocence, and who punishes triumphant guilt, is and 
always will be popular. If God did not exist, it would behoove 
man to invent him." Accordingly Robespierre offered in the Con- 
vention the following resolution : " The French people acknowledge 
the existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the 
soul." The decree was adopted, and the. churches that had been 
converted into temples of the Goddess of Reason were now con- 
secrated to the worship of the Supreme Being. 

The Terror at Paris. — At the very same time that Robespierre 
was establishing the new worship, he was desolating France with 
massacres of incredible atrocity, and ruling by a terrorism unpar- 
alleled since the most frightful days of Rome. With all power 
gathered in his hands, he overawed all opposition and dissent by 
the wholesale slaughters of the guillotine. The prisons of Paris 
and of the departments were filled with suspected persons, until 
200,000 prisoners were crowded within these republican Bas- 
tiles. At Paris the dungeons were emptied of their victims and 
room made for fresh ones, by the swift processes of the Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal, which in mockery of justice caused the prisoners 
to be brought before its bar in companies of ten or fifty. Rank 
or talent was an inexpiable crime. "Were you not a noble?" 
asks the president of the court of one of the accused. "Yes," 



MASSACRES IN THE PROVINCES. 665 

was the reply. '^Enough ; another," was the judge's verdict. And 
so on through the long list each day brought before the tribunal. 

The scenes about the guillotine were simply infernal. Benches 
were arranged around the scaffold and rented to spectators, like 
seats in a theatre. A special sewer had to be constructed to carry 
off the blood of the victims. In the space of a little over a 
month (from June loth to July 17th) the number of persons guil- 
lotined at Paris was 1285, an average of 34 a day. 

Massacres in the Provinces. — While such was the terrible state 
of things at the capital, matters were even worse in many of the 
other leading cities of France. The scenes at Nantes, Bordeaux, 
Marseilles, and Toulon suggested, in their varied elements of 
horror, the awful conceptions of the " Inferno " of Dante. At 
Nantes the victims were at first shot singly or guillotined ; but 
these methods being found too slow, more expeditious modes of 
execution were devised. To these were playfully given the names 
of " RepubHcan Baptisms," " Republican Marriages," and " Bat- 
tues." 

The " Republican Baptism" consisted in crowding a hundred or 
more persons into a vessel, which was then towed out into the 
Loire and scuttled. In the " Republican Marriages " a man and 
woman were bound together, and then thrown into the river. The 
'' Battues " consisted in ranging the victims in long ranks, and 
mowing them down with discharges of cannon and musket. 

By these various methods fifteen thousand victims were destroyed 
in the course of a single month. The entire number massacred at 
Nantes during the Reign of Terror is estimated at thirty thousand. 
What renders these murders the more horrible is the fact that a 
considerable number of the victims wer'e women and children. 
Nantes was at this time crowded with the orphaned children of 
the Vendean counter-revolutionists. Upon a single night three 
hundred of these innocents were taken from the city prisons and 
drowned in the Loire. 

The Fall of Robespierre (July, 1794). — By such terrorism did 
Robespierre and his creatures rule France for a little more than 



666 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

three months. The awful suspense and dread drove many into 
insanity and to suicide. The strain was too great for human 
nature to bear. A reaction came. The successes of the armies 
of the repubHc, and the establishment of the authority of the 
Convention throughout the departments, caused the people to 
look upon the massacres that were daily taking place as unneces- 
sary and cruel. They began to turn with horror and pity from the 
scenes of the guillotine. 

The first blow at the power of the dictator was struck in the 
Convention. A member dared to denounce him, upon the floor 
of the assembly, as a tyrant. The spell was broken. He was 
arrested and sent to the guillotine, with a large number of his 
confederates. The people greeted the fall of the tyrant's head 
with demonstrations of unbounded joy. The dehrium was over. 
" France had awakened from the ghastly dream of the Reign of 
Terror (July 28, 1794)." 

The Reaction. — The reaction which had swept away Robes- 
pierre and his associates continued after their ruin. The clubs of 
the Jacobins were closed, and that infamous society which had 
rallied and directed the hideous rabbles of the great cities was 
broken up. The deputies that had been driven from their seats 
in the Convention were invited to resume their places and the 
Christian worship was reestablished. 

Napoleon defends the Convention (Oct. 5, 1795). — These and 
other measures of the Convention did not fail of arousing the 
bitter opposition of the scattered forces of the Terrorists, as they 
were called; and on the 5th of October, 1795, a mob of 40,000 
men advanced to the attack of the Tuileries, where the Conven 
tion was sitting. As the mob came on they were met by a storm 
of grape shot, which sent them flying back in wild disorder. The 
man who trained the guns was a young artillery officer, a native 
of the island of Corsica, — Napoleon Bonaparte. The Revolu- 
tion had at last brought forth a man of genius capable of control- 
ling and directing its tremendous energies. 



THE DIRECTORY. 667 

5. The Directory (Oct. 27, 1795-Nov. 9, 1799). 

The Republic becomes Aggressive. — A few weeks after the 
defence of the Convention by Napoleon, that body declaring its 
labors ended, closed its sessions, and immediately afterwards the 
Councils and the Board of Directors provided for by the new con- 
stitution ^ that had been framed by the Convention, assumed con- 
trol of affairs. 

Under the Directory the republic, which up to this time had 
been acting mainly on the defensive, entered upon an aggressive 
policy. The Revolution, having accomplished its work in France, 
having there destroyed royal despotism and abolished class privi- 
lege, now set itself about fulfilling its early promise of giving lib- 
erty to all peoples (see p. 658). In a word, the revolutionists 
became propagandists. France now exhibits what her historians 
call her social, her communicative genius. " Easily seduced her- 
self," as Lamartine says, " she easily seduces others." She would 
make all Europe like unto herself. Herself a republic, she would 
make all nations republics. 

Had not the minds of the people in all the neighboring coun- 
tries been pr^ared to welcome the new order of things, the Revo- 
lution could never have spread itself as widely as it did. But 
everywhere irrepressible longings for social and political equality 
and freedom, born of long oppression, were stirring the souls of 
men. ' The French armies were everywhere welcomed as deliver- 
ers. Thus was France enabled to surround herself with a girdle 
of commonwealths. She conquered Europe not by her armies, 
but by her ideas. "An invasion of armies," says Victor Hugo, 
" can be resisted : an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted." 

The repubhcs established were, indeed, short-lived ; for the 
times were not yet ripe for the complete triumph of democratic 

1 There were to be two legislative bodies, — the Council of Five Hundred 
and the Council of the Ancients, the latter embracing two hundred and fifty- 
persons, of whom no one could be under fifty years of age. The executive 
power was vested in a board of five persons, which was called the Directory. 



668 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

ideas. But a great gain for freedom was made. The reestablished 
monarchies never dared to make themselves as despotic as those 
which the Revolution had overturned. 

The Plans of the Directory. — Austria and England were the 
only formidable powers that still persisted in their hostility to the 
republic. The Directors resolved to strike a decisive blow at the 
first of these implacable foes. To carry out their designs, two 
large armies, numbering about 70,000 each, were mustered upon 
the middle Rhine, and intrusted to the command of the two young 
and energetic generals Moreau and Jourdan, who were to make 
a direct invasion of Germany. A third army, numbering about 
36,000 men, was assembled in the neighborhood of Nice, in 
South-eastern France, and placed in the hands of Napoleon, to 
whom was assigned the work of driving the Austrians out of Italy. 

Napoleon's Italian Campaign (i 796-1 797). — Straightway upon 
receiving his command. Napoleon, now in his twenty- seventh year, 
animated by visions of military glory to be gathered on the fields 
of Italy, hastened to join his army at Nice. He found the discon- 
tented soldiers almost without food or clothes. He at once aroused 
all their latent enthusiasm by one of those short, stirring addresses 
for which he afterwards became so famous. Than before the 
mountain roads were yet free from snow, he set his army in 
motion, and forced the passage of the low Genoese, or Mari- 
time Alps. The Carthaginian had been surpassed. "Hanni- 
bal," exclaimed Napoleon, "crossed the Alps; as for us, we have 
turned them." Now followed a most astonishing series of French 
victories over the Austrians and their allies. As a result of the 
campaign a considerable part of Northern Italy was formed into 
a commonwealth under the name of the Cisalpine Republic. 
Genoa was also transformed into the Ligurian Republic. 

Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). — While Napoleon had been 
gaining his surprising victories in Italy, Moreau and Jourdan had 
been meeting with severe reverses in Germany, their invading 
columns having been forced back upon the Rhine by the Arch- 
duke Charles. Napoleon, having effected the work assigned to 



NAPOLEON'S EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN. 669 

the army of Italy, now climbed the Eastern Alps, and led his soldiers 
down upon the plains of Austria. The near approach of the French 
to Vienna induced the emperor, Francis II., to listen to propo- 
sals of peace. An armistice was agreed upon, and a few months 
afterwards the important treaty of Campo Formio was arranged. 
By the terms of this treaty Austria ceded her Belgian provinces to 
the French Republic, surrendered important provinces on the west 
side of the Rhine, and acknowledged the Cisalpine Republic. 

With the treaty arranged, Napoleon set out for Paris, where a 
triumph and ovation such as Europe had not seen since the days 
of the old Roman conquerors, awaited him. 

Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt (i 798-1 799). — The Directors 
had received Napoleon with apparent enthusiasm and affection ; 
but at this very moment they were disquieted by fears lest the 
conqueror's ambition might lead him to play the part of a second 
Caesar. They resolved to engage the young commander in an 
enterprise which would take him out of France. This undertak- 
ing was an attack upon England, which they were then meditating. 
Bonaparte opposed the plan of a direct descent upon the island as 
impracticable, declaring that England should be attacked through 
her Eastern possessions. He presented a scheme very charac- 
teristic of his bold, imaginative genius. This was nothing less 
than the conquest and colonization of Egypt, by which means 
France would be able to control the trade of the East, and cut 
England off from her East India possessions. The Directors as- 
sented to the plan, and with feelings of relief saw Napoleon embark 
from the port of Toulon to carry out the enterprise. 

Escaping the vigilance of the British fleet that was patrolling the 
Mediterranean, Napoleon landed in Egypt July i, 1798. Within 
sight of the Pyramids, the French army was checked in its 
march upon Cairo by a determined stand of the renowned Mam- 
eluke cavalry. Napoleon animated the spirits of his men for 
the inevitable fight by one of his happiest speeches. One of the 
sentences is memorable : " Soldiers," he exclaimed, pointing to 
the Pyramids, ^' forty centuries are looking down upon you." The 



670 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

terrific struggle that followed is known in history as the " Battle 
of the Pyramids." Napoleon gained a victory that opened the 
way for his advance. The French now entered Cairo in triumph, 
and all Lower Egypt fell into their hands. 

Napoleon had barely made his entrance into Cairo, before the 
startling intelligence was borne to him that his fleet had been 
destroyed in the bay of Aboukir, at the mouth of the Nile, by the 
English admiral Nelson (Aug. i, 1798). 

In the spring of 1799, Napoleon led his army into Syria, the 
Porte having joined a new coalition against France. He captured 
Gaza and Jaffa, and finally invested Acre. The Turks were 
assisted in the defence of this place by the distinguished English 
admiral, Sir Sidney Smith. ^ All of Napoleon's attempts to carry 
the place by storm were defeated by the skill and bravery of the 
Enghsh commander. "That man Sidney," said Napoleon after- 
wards, "made me miss my destiny." Doubtless Napoleon's vis- 
ion of conquests in the East embraced Persia and India. With 
the ports of Syria secured, he would have imitated Alexander, 
and led his soldiers to the foot of the Himalayas. 

Bitterly disappointed, Napoleon abandoned the siege of Acre, 
and led his army back into Egypt. There his worn and thinned 
ranks were attacked near Aboukir by a fresh Turkish army, but the 
genius of Napoleon turned threatened defeat into a brilliant vic- 
tory. The enthusiastic Kleber, one of Napoleon's lieutenants, 
clasping his general in his arms, exclaimed, " Sire, your greatness is 
like that of the universe." 

Establishment of the Tiberiiie, Helvetic, and Parthenopsean 
Republics. — We must turn now to view affairs in Europe. The 
year 1798 was a favorable one for the republican cause repre- 
sented by the Revolution. During that year and the opening 
month of the following one, the P>ench set up three new repub- 
lics. First, they incited an insurrection at Rome, made a prisoner 

1 The besieged were further assisted by a Turkish army outside. With 
these the French fought the noted Battle of Mount Tabor, in which they 
gained a complete victory. 



THE REACTION. 671 

of the Pope, and proclaimed the Roman, or Tiberine, RepubHc. 
Then they invaded the Swiss cantons and united them into a com- 
monwealth under the name of the Helvetic Republic. A little 
later the French troops drove the king of Naples out of his king- 
dom, and transformed that state into the Parthenopaean Republic. 
Thus were three new republics added to the commonwealths 
which the Revolution had already created. 

The Reaction: Napoleon overthrows the Directory (i8th and 
19th Brumaire). — Most of this work was quickly undone. En- 
couraged by the victory of Nelson over the French fleet in the 
battle of the Nile, the leading states of Europe had formed a new 
coalition against the French Republic. Early in 1779 the war 
began, and was waged in almost every part of Europe at the same 
time. The campaign was on the whole extremely disastrous to 
the French. They were driven out of Italy, and were barely able 
to keep the allies off the soil of France. The Tiberine and the 
Parthenopaean Republics were abohshed. 

The reverses suffered by the French armies caused the Direc- 
tory to fall into great disfavor. They were charged with having 
through jealousy exiled Napoleon, the only man who could save 
the Republic. Confusion and division prevailed everywhere. The 
royalists had become so strong and bold that there was danger lest 
they should gain control of the government. On the other hand, 
the threats of the Jacobins began to create apprehensions of an- 
other Reign of Terror. 

News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Napoleon 
just after his victory in Egypt, following his return from Syria. 
He instantly formed a bold resolve. Confiding the command of 
the army in Egypt to Kleber, he set sail for France, disclosing his 
designs in the significant words, "The reign of the lawyers is 
over." 

Napoleon was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusiasm. 
A great majority of the people felt instinctively that the emer- 
gency demanded a dictator. Some of the Directors joined with 
Napoleon in a plot to overthrow the government. Meeting with 



672 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

opposition in the Council of Five Hundred, Napoleon with a body 
of grenadiers drove the deputies from their chamber (Nov. 9, 

1799)- 
The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell 

(see p. 611). Napoleon was master of France. The first French 

Republic was at an end, and what is distinctively called the 

French Revolution was over. Now commences the history of the 

Consulate and the First Empire, — the story of that surprising 

career, the sun of which rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set 

forever at Waterloo. 




THE VEILED MILITARY DESPOTISM. 673 



CHAPTER LIX. 

THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE: FRANCE SINCE 
THE SECOND RESTORATION. 

I. The Consulate and the Empire (i 799-1815). 

The Veiled Military Despotism. — After the overthrow of the 
Directorial government, a new constitution — the fourth since the 
year 1789 — was prepared, and having been submitted to the 
approval of the people, was heartily indorsed. This new instru- 
ment vested the executive power in three consuls, elected for a 
term of ten years, the first of whom really exercised all the author- 
ity of the Board. Napoleon, of course, became the First Consul. 

The other functions of the government were carried on by a 
Council of State, a Tribunate, a Legislature, and a Senate. But 
the members of all these bodies were appointed either directly or 
indirectly by the consuls, so that the entire government was actu- 
ally in their hands, or, rather, in the hands of the First Consul. 
France was still called a republic, but it was such a republic as 
Rome was under Julius Caesar or Augustus. The republican 
names and forms merely veiled a government as absolute and per- 
sonal as that of Louis XIV., — in a word, a mihtary despotism. 

Wars of the First Consul. — Neither Austria nor England 
would acknowledge the government of the First Consul as legiti- 
mate. In their view he was simply an upstart, a fortunate usurper. 
The throne of France belonged, by virtue of divine right, to the 
House of Bourbon. 

Napoleon mustered his soldiers. His plan was to deal Austria, 
his worst continental enemy, a double blow. A large army was 
collected on the Rhine, for an invasion of Germany. This was 
intrusted to Moreau. Another, intended to operate against the 



674 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

Austrians in Italy, was gathered at the foot of the Alps. Napo- 
leon himself assumed command of this latter force. 

In the spring of the year 1 800 Napoleon made his memorable 
passage of the Alps, and astonished the Austrian generals by sud- 
denly appearing, with an army of 40,000 men, on the plains of 
Italy. Upon the renowned field of Marengo the Austrian army, 
which outnumbered that of the French three to one, was com- 
pletely overwhelmed, and Italy lay for a second time at the feet of 
Napoleon (June 14, 1800). 

But at the moment Italy was regained, Egypt was lost. On the 
very day of the battle of Marengo, Kleber, whom Napoleon had 
left in charge of the army in Egypt, was assassinated by a Turkish 
fanatic, and shortly afterwards the entire French force was obliged 
to surrender to the English. 

The French reverses in Egypt, however, were soon made up 
by fresh victories in Europe. A few months after the battle of 
Marengo, Moreau gained a decisive victory over the Austrians at 
Hohenlinden, which opened the way to Vienna. The Emperor 
Francis II. was now constrained to sign a treaty of peace at Lune- 
ville, in which he allowed the Rhine to be made the eastern fron- 
tier of France (February, 1801). The emperor also recognized 
the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Helvetian, and Batavian republics. The 
following year England was also glad to sign a peace at Amiens 
(March, 1802). 

His Works of Peace : the Code Napoleon. — Having wrung from 
both England and Austria an acknowledgment of his government, 
Napoleon was now free to devote his amazing energies to the 
reform and improvement of the internal affairs of France. So at 
this time were begun by him those great works of various charac- 
ter which were continued through all the fifteen years of his su- 
premacy. His great military road over the Alps by the Simplon 
Pass, surpasses in bold engineering the most difficult of the 
Roman roads, while many of his architectural works are the pride 
of France at the present day. 

Taking up the work of the Revolution, he caused the laws of 



NAPOLEON MADE CONSUL. 675 

France to be revised and harmonized, producing the celebrated 
Code Napoleon, a work that is not unworthy of comparison with 
the Corpus Juris Civilis of the Emperor Justinian. The influence 
of this Code upon the development of Liberalism in Western 
Europe is simply incalculable. It secured the work of the Revo- 
lution. It swept away the unequal, iniquitous, oppressive customs, 
regulations, decrees, and laws that were an inheritance from the 
feudal ages. It recognized the equality in the eye of the law 
of noble and peasant. " It is to-day the frame-work of law in 
France, Holland, Belgium, Western Germany, Switzerland, and 
Italy." Had Napoleon done nothing else save to give this Code 
to Europe, he would have conferred an inestimable benefit upon 
mankind. 

Napoleon made Consul for Life (1802). — As a reward for 
his vast services to France, and also in order that his magnificent 
schemes of reform and improvement might be pursued without 
fear of interruption. Napoleon was now, by a vote of the people, 
made Consul for Life, with the right to name his successor (Au- 
gust, 1802). Thus he moved a step nearer the coveted dignity of 
the Imperial title. 

Napoleon proclaimed Emperor (1804). — A conspiracy against 
the hfe of the First Consul, and the increased activity of his ene- 
mies, caused the French people to resolve to increase his power, 
and secure his safety and the stability of his government, by 
placing him upon a throne. A decree conferring upon him the 
title of Emperor having been submitted to the people for approval 
was ratified by an almost unanimous vote, less than three thousand 
persons opposing the measure. 

Surrounding Republics changed into Kingdoms. — Thus was 
the First French Republic metamorphosed into an unveiled empire. 
We may be sure that the cluster of republics which during the 
Revolution sprang up around the great original, will speedily un- 
dergo a like transformation ; for Napoleon was right when he said 
that a revolution in France is sure to be followed by a revolution 
throughout Europe. As France, a republic, would make all states 



676 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

republics, so France, a monarchy, would make all nations monar- 
chies. Within five years from the time that the government of 
France assumed an imperial form, all the surrounding republics 
raised up by the revolutionary ideas and armies of France, had 
been transformed into monarchies dependent upon France, or 
had become a component part of the French Empire.^ Thus was 
the political work of the Revolution undone. Political liberty was 
taken away ; the people were not yet ready for self-government. 
Social Equality was left. 

The Wars of Napoleon. — It will not be supposed that the 
powers of Europe were looking quietly on while France was thus 
metamorphosing herself and all the neighboring countries. The 
colossal power which the soldier of fortune was building up, was 
a menace to all Europe. The empire was more dreaded than the 
republic, because it was a military despotism, and as such, an in- 
strument of irresistible power in the hands of a man of such genius 
and resources as Napoleon. Coalition after coalition, always 
headed by England, — who had sworn a Punic hatred to the 
Napoleonic empire, — was formed by the monarchies of Europe 
against the ''usurper," with the object of pressing France back 
within her original boundaries and setting up again the subverted 
throne of the Bourbons. 

From the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 until his final down- 
fall in 1 8 1 5 , the tremendous struggle went on almost without inter- 
mission. It was the war of the giants. Europe was shaken from 
end to end by such armies as the world had not seen since the 
days of Xerxes. Napoleon, whose hands were upheld by a score 
of distinguished marshals, performed the miracles of genius. His 
brilHant achievements still dazzle, while they amaze, the world. 

1 The Cisalpine, or Italian Republic, was changed into a kingdom, and 
Napoleon, crowning himself at Milan with the iron crown of the Lombards, 
assumed the government of the state with the title of King of Italy (May 26, 
1805). The Ligurian Republic, embracing Genoa and a portion of Sardinia, 
was made a part of France, while the Batavian Republic was changed into 
the Kingdom of Holland, and given by Napoleon to his brother Louis (June, 
1806). 



AUSTERLITZ. 677 

To relate in detail the campaigns of Napoleon from Austerlitz 
to Waterloo would require the space of volumes. We shall simply 
indicate in a few brief paragraphs the successive steps by which 
he mounted to the highest pitch of power and fame, and then 
trace rapidly the decline and fall of his astonishing fortunes. 

Austerlitz (1805) : End of the Holy Roman Empire (1806). 
— The year following his coronation, Napoleon made a gigan- 
tic effort to break the coalition which England, Russia, Austria, 
and Sweden had formed against him. He massed an immense 
army at Boulogne, on the Channel, preparatory to an invasion of 
England ; but the failure of his fleet to carry out its part of 
the plan, and intelligence of the approach of the Austrians and 
Russians towards the Rhenish frontier, caused him suddenly to 
transfer his troops to the opposite side of France. 

Without waiting for the attack of the allies. Napoleon flung his 
Grand Army, as it was called, across the Rhine, defeated the Aus- 
trians in the battle of Ulm, and marched in triumph through Vienna 
to the field of Austerlitz beyond, where he gained one of his most 
memorable victories over the combined armies of Austria and 
Russia, numbering more than 100,000 men (Dec. 2, 1805). 

This battle completely changed the map of Europe. Austria 
was forced to give up Venetia and other provinces about the head 
of the Adriatic, this territory being now added to the kingdom of 
Italy. Sixteen of the German states, declaring themselves inde- 
pendent of the empire, were formed into a league, called the Con- 
federation of the Rhine, with Napoleon as Protector. Furthermore, 
the Emperor Francis II. was obliged to surrender the crown of the 
Nofy Ro7nan Empire, and thereafter to content himself with the 
title of E7nperor of Austria. 

Thus did the Holy Roman Empire come to an end (1806), 
after having maintained an existence, since its revival by Otto the 
Great, of more than eight hundred years. The Kingdom of Ger- 
many, which was created by the partition of the empire of Charle- 
magne (see p. 408), now also passed out of existence, even in 
name. 



678 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

Trafalgar (Oct. 21, 1805). — Napoleon's brilliant victories in 
Germany were clouded by an irretrievable disaster to his fleet, 
which occurred only two days after the engagement at Ulm. 
Lord Nelson having met, near Cape Trafalgar on the coast of 
Spain, the combined French and Spanish fleets, — Spain had 
become the ally of Napoleon, — almost completely destroyed the 
combined armaments. The gallant English admiral fell at the 
moment of victory. "Thank God, I have done my duty," were 
his last words. 

This decisive battle gave England the control of the sea, and 
relieved her from all danger of a French invasion. Even the 
" wet ditch," as Napoleon was wont contemptuously to call the 
English Channel, was henceforth an impassable gulf to his ambi- 
tion. He might rule the continent, but the sovereignty of the 
ocean and its islands was denied him. 

Jena and Auerstadt (1806). — Prussia was the state next after 
Austria to feel the weight of Napoleon's power. Goaded by 
insult, the Prussian king, Frederick William III., very imprudently 
threw down the gauntlet to the French emperer. Moving with 
his usual swiftness. Napoleon overwhelmed the armies of Fred- 
erick in the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, which were both 
fought upon the same day (Oct. 14, 1806). Thus the great mili- 
tary power consolidated by the genius of Frederick the Great, was 
crushed and almost annihilated. What had proved too great an 
undertaking for the combined powers of Europe during the Seven 
Years' War, Napoleon had effected in less than a month. 

Eylau and Friedland (1807). — The year following his victo- 
ries over the Prussians, Napoleon led his Grand Army against the 
forces of the Czar, Alexander I., who had entered Prussia with aid 
for King Frederick. A fierce but indecisive battle at Eylau was 
followed, a little later in the same season, by the battle of Fried- 
land, in which the Russians were completely overwhelmed (June 
14, 1807). The Czar was forced to sue for peace. 

By the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit Prussia was stripped of 
more than half of her former dominions, a part of which was made 



THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 679 

into a new state, called the Kingdom of Westphalia, with Napo- 
leon's brother, Jerome, as its king, and added to the Confed- 
eration of the Rhine ; while Prussian Poland, reorganized and 
clmTisily christened the " Grand Duchy of Warsaw," was given to 
Saxony. What was left of Prussia became virtually a dependency 
of the French empire. 

The Continental System: the Berlin and Milan Decrees. — 
While Napoleon was carrying on his campaigns against Prussia 
and Russia, he was all the time meditating vengeance upon Eng- 
land, his most uncompromising foe, and the leader or the instigator 
of the coalitions which were constantly being formed for the over- 
throw of his power. We have seen how the destruction of his 
fleet at Trafalgar dashed all his hopes of ever making a descent 
upon the British shores. Unable to reach his enemy directly with 
his arms, he resolved to strike her through her commerce. By two 
celebrated imperial edicts, called from the cities whence they were 
issued the Berlin and the Milan decree, he closed all the ports of 
the continent against English ships, and forbade any of the Euro- 
pean nations from holding any intercourse with Great Britain, all 
of whose ports he declared in a state of blockade. 

So completely was Europe under the domination of Napoleon, 
that England's trade was by these measures very seriously crippled, 
and great loss and suffering were inflicted upon her industrial 
classes. We shall have occasion a little later to speak of the dis- 
astrous effects of the system upon the French empire itself. 

Beginning of the Peninsular Wars ( 1 808) . — One of the first 
consequences of Napoleon's " continental policy " was to bring 
him into conflict with Portugal. The prince regent of that country 
presuming to open its ports to English ships. Napoleon at once 
deposed him, and sent one of his marshals to take possession of 
the kingdom. The entire royal family, accompanied by many of 
the nobility, fled to Brazil, and made that country the seat of an 
empire which has endured to the present day. 

Having thus gained a foothold in the Peninsula, Napoleon now 
resolved to possess himself of the whole of it. Insolently inter- 



680 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

fering in the affairs of Spain, he forced the weak-minded Bourbon 
king to resign to him, as his "dearly beloved friend and ally," his 
crown, which he bestowed at once upon his brother, Joseph Bona- 
parte (1808). The throne of Naples, which Joseph had been 
occupying,^ was transferred to Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law. 
Thus did this audacious man make and unmake kings, and give 
away thrones and kingdoms. 

But the high-spirited Spaniards were not the people to submit 
tamely to such an indignity. The entire nation, from the Pyrenees 
to the Straits of Gibraltar, flew to arms. Portugal also arose, and 
England sent to her aid a force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, after- 
wards Duke of WelHngton, and the hero of Waterloo. The French 
were soon driven out of Portugal, and pushed beyond the Ebro 
in Spain. Joseph fled in dismay from his throne, and Napoleon 
found it necessary to take the field himself, in order to restore the 
prestige of the French arms. He entered the Peninsula at the 
head of an army of 80,000 men, and scattering the Spaniards 
wherever he met them, entered Madrid in triumph, and reseated 
his brother upon the Spanish throne. 

Threatening tidings from another quarter of Europe now caused 
Napoleon to hasten back to Paris. 

Second Campaign against Austria (1809). — Taking advantage 
of Napoleon's troubles in the Peninsula, Francis I. of Austria, 
who had been watching for an opportunity to retrieve the disaster 
of Austerlitz, gathered an army of half a million of men, and de- 
clared war against the French emperor. But Austria was fated to 
suffer even a deeper humihation than she had already endured. 
Napoleon swept across the Danube, and at the end of a short cam- 
paign, the most noted battles of which were those of Eckmlihl and 
Wagram, Austria was again at his feet, and a second time he 
entered Vienna in triumph. Austria was now still farther dismem- 
bered, large tracts of her possessions being ceded directly to 
Napoleon or given to the various neighboring states (1809). 

1 Napoleon dethroned the Bourbons in Naples in 1 805. 



ANNEXATION OF THE PAPAL STATES. 681 

Thel*apal States and Holland joined to the French Empire. — 

That Napoleon cared but little for the thunders of the Church is 
shown by his treatment of the Pope. Pius VII. opposing his con- 
tinental system, the emperor incorporated the Papal States with 
the French empire (1809). The Pope thereupon excommuni- 
cated Napoleon, who straightway arrested the Pontiff, dragged him 
over the Alps into France, and held him in captivity for four years. 

The year following the annexation of the Papal States to the 
French empire, Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, who disap- 
proved of his brother's continental system, which was ruining the 
trade of the Dutch, abdicated the crown. Thereupon Napoleon 
incorporated Holland with France, on the ground that it was 
simply " the sediment of the French rivers." 

Napoleon's Second Marriage (t8io). — The year following his 
triumph over Francis I. of Austria, Napoleon divorced his wife 
Josephine, in order to form a new alliance, with Maria Louisa, 
Archduchess of Austria. The fond and faithful Josephine bowed 
meekly to the will of her lord, and went into sorrowful exile from 
his palace. Napoleon's object in this matter was to cover the 
reproach of his own plebeian birth, by an alliance with one of the 
ancient royal families of Europe, and to secure the perpetuity of 
his government by leaving an heir who might be the inheritor of 
his throne and fortunes. His hope seemed realized when, the 
year following his marriage with the Archduchess, a son was born 
to them, who was given the title of " King of Rome." 

Napoleon at the Summit of his Power (181 1). — Napoleon was 
now at the height of his marvellous fortunes. Marengo, Austerlitz, 
Jena, Friedland, and Wagram were the successive steps by which he 
had mounted to the most dizzy heights of military power and glory. 
The empire which he had built up stretched from the Baltic to 
Southern Italy, embracing France proper, Belgium, Holland, 
Northwestern Germany, Italy west of the Apennines as far south 
as Naples, besides large possessions about the head of the Adriatic. 
On all sides were allied, vassal, or dependent states. Several of 
the ancient thrones of Europe were occupied by Napoleon's rela- 




682 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

tives or favorite marshals. He himself was head of the kingdom 
of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. Aus- 
tria and Prussia were completely subject to his will. Russia and 
Denmark were his allies. ^"^^C^' 

Elements of Weakness in the Empire. — But splendid and 

imposing as at this moment ap- 
peared the external affairs of 
Napoleon, the sun of his fortunes, 
which had risen so brightly at 
A^usterlitz, had already passed its 
meridian. There were many 
things just now contributing to 
the weakness of the French em- 
pire and foreboding its speedy 
dis. ,lution. Founded and up- 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. ,11, 1 • r xt 1 

held by the gemus of Napoleon, 
it depended solely upon the life and fortunes of this single man. 
The diverse elements it embraced were as yet so loosely joined 
that there could be no hope or possibility of its surviving either 
the misfortune or the death of its founder. 

Again, Napoleon's continental system, through the suffering and 
loss it inflicted upon all the maritime countries of Europe, had 
caused murmurs of discontent all around the circumference of the 
continent. This ruinous poHcy had also involved the French 
emperor in a terribly wasteful war with Spain, which country was 
destined — more truly than Italy, of which the expression was 
first used — to become " the grave of the French." Napoleon 
after his downfall himself admitted that his passage of the Pyrenees 
was the fatal misstep in his career. 

Furthermore, the conscriptions of the emperor had drained 
France of men, and her armies were now recruited by mere boys, 
who were utterly unfit to bear the burden and fatigue of Napoleon's 
rapid campaigns. The heavy taxes, also, which were necessary 
to meet the expenses of Napoleon's wars, and to carry on the 
splendid public works upon which he was constantly engaged, 



THE INVASION OF RUSSIA. 683 

produced great suffering and discontent throughout the empire. 
And the crowd of deposed princes and dispossessed aristocrats 
in those states where Napoleon had promulgated his new code of 
equal rights (see p. 675), were naturally restless and resentful, and 
watchful for an opportunity to recover their ancient power and 
privileges. Even the large class in the surrounding countries that 
at first welcomed Napoleon as the representative of the French 
ideas of equality and liberty, and applauded while he overturned 
ancient thrones and aristocracies, which, like the monarchy and 
the feudal nobility in France swept away by the Revolution, had 
become unbearably proud, corrupt, and oppressive, — even these 
early adherents had been turned into bitter enemies through 
Napoleon's adoption of imperial manners, and especially by his 
setting aside his first wife, Josephine, in order that he might ally 
himself to one of the old royal houses of Europe, which act was 
looked upon as a betrayal of the cause of the people. 

Nothing save the prestige of Napoleon's name and the dread of 
his vengeance keeps his enemies at bay. Let the lion be wounded 
and a hundred enemies will spring upon him from every side. 

The Invasion of Russia (181 2- 18 13). — The signal for the 
uprising of Europe was the terrible misfortune which befell Napo- 
leon in his invasion of Russia. The Czar having cast aside the old 
ties of alliance and friendship, and entered a coalition against 
France, Napoleon crossed the frontiers of Russia, at the head of 
what was proudly called the Grand Army, numbering more than 
half a million of men. 

The Russians threw themselves across the path of the invaders 
at Borodino, but their lines were swept back by the strong col- 
umns of the Grand Army, although the victory cost the French 
dear. Following closely the retreating enemy, the French pushed 
on towards the ancient Russian capital, Moscow. This city Napo- 
leon had thought would supply food for his army, and shelter from 
the severity of the northern winter, which was now approaching. 
But to his astonishment he found the city deserted by its inhabi- 
tants ; and scarcely had he estabhshed himself in the empty palace 



684 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

of the Czar (the Kremlin), before the city, probably fired by per- 
sons whom the Russians had left behind for this purpose, burst 
into flames. After waiting about the ruins until the middle of 
October, in hopes that the Czar would accept proposals of peace, 
Napoleon was forced to give the command for the return of the 
army to France. 

The retreat was attended with incredible suflerings and horrors. 
The Russian winter setting in earlier than usual and with terrible 
severity, thousands of the French soldiers were frozen to death, 
and falling upon the snow traced with a long black line the trail 
of the retreating army. The spot of each bivouac was marked '.y 
the circles of dead around the watch-fires. Thousands more were 
slain by the wild Cossacks, who surrounded the retreating columns 
and harassed them day and night. The passage of the river 
Beresina was attended with appalling losses. 

Soon after the passage of this stream, Napoleon, conscious that 
the fate of his empire depended upon his presence in Paris, left 
the remnant of the army in charge of his marshals, and hurried by 
post to his capital. Marshal Ney, "the bravest of the brave," 
performed miracles in covering the retreat of the broken and 
dispirited columns. He was the last man, it is said, to cross the 
Niemen, His face was so haggard from care and so begrimed 
with powder, that no one recognized him. Being asked who he 
was, he replied, '' I am the rear guard of the Grand Army." 

The loss by death of the French and their allies in this disas- 
trous campaign is reckoned at about 300,000 men,^ while that of 
the Russians is estimated to have been almost as large. 

''The Battle of the Nations" (Leipsic, 1813). — Napoleon's 
fortunes were buried with his Grand Army in the snows of Russia. 
His woeful losses emboldened the surrounding powers to think that 
now they could crush him. A sixth coalition was formed, embrac- 
ing Russia, Prussia, England, and Sweden. Napoleon made gigan- 
tic efforts to prepare France for the struggle. By the spring of 1813 
he was at the head of a new army, numbering over 300,000 men. 

^ The Russians took 100,000 prisoners, and about 100,000 recrossed the 
Niemen. 



THE ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON. 685 

Falling upon the allied armies of the Russians and Prussians, 
first at Lutzen and then at Bautzen, he gained a decisive victory 
upon both fields. Austria now appeared in the lists, and at 
Leipsic the French were met by the leagued armies of Europe. 
So many were the powers represented upon the renowned field, 
that it is known in history as the '■'■ Battle of the Nations." The 
combat lasted three days. Napoleon was defeated, and forced to 
retreat into France. 

The Abdication of Napoleon (1814). — The armies of the 
aUies now poured over all the French frontiers. Napoleon's tre- 
mendous efforts to roll back the tide of invasion were all in vain. 
As the struggle became manifestly hopeless, his most trusted offi- 
cers deserted and betrayed him. Paris surrendered to the allies. 
Napoleon was forced to abdicate, and the ancient House of the 
Bourbons was reestablished in the person of a brother of Louis 
XVI., who took the title of Louis XVIIL Napoleon was banished 
to the little island of Elba in the Mediterranean, being permitted 
to retain his title of Emperor, and to keep about him a few hun- 
dred of his old guards. But Elba was a very diminutive empire 
for one to whom the half of Europe seemed too small, and we shall 
not be surprised to learn that Napoleon was not content with it. 

The Congress of Vienna (Sept., 1814-June, 18 15). — After the 
overthrow of Napoleon, commissioners of the different European 
states met at Vienna to readjust the map of Europe. It was a 
great task to harmonize the conflicting claims that came before the 
convention, and to effect a settlement of the continent that should 
satisfy all parties. But after nearly a year of negotiations and 
debate, an agreement respecting the boundaries and relations of 
the various states was reached. As we shall hereafter, in connec- 
tion with the history of the separate countries, have occasion to 
say something respecting the relations of each to the Congress, 
we shall here say but a word regarding the temper of the assembly 
and the general character of its work. 

The Vienna commissioners seemed to have had but one thought 
and aim — to put everything back as near as possible in the shape 



686 THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. 

that it was in before the Revohition. They had no care for the 
people ; the princes were their only concern. The crowd of 
thrones that Napoleon had overturned were righted, and the old 
despots were invited to remount them. Italy and Germany were 
divided among a horde of petty tyrants. In Spain and Naples the 
old Bourbon families were re-instated, and the former despotisms 
renewed. In short, the clock was set back to the hour when the 
Bastile was attacked. Everything that had happened since was 
utterly ignored. 

But the Revolution had destroyed privilege as expressed in the 
effete feudal aristocracies of Europe, and impaired beyond resto- 
ration the monstrous doctrine of the divine right of kings. An 
attempt to bring these things back again was an attempt to restore 
life to the dead, — to set up again the fallen Dagon in his place. 

Notwithstanding, the commissioners at Vienna, blind to the spirit 
and tendencies of the times, did set up once more the broken 
idol, — only, however, to see it flung down again by the memo- 
rable social upheavals of the next half century. The kings had 
had their Congress : the people were to have theirs, — in 1820 and 
'30 and '48. 

The Hundred Days (March 20-June 29, 1815). — The alHes 
who placed Louis XVII I. upon the French throne set back the 
boundaries of France as nearly as possible to the lines they occu- 
pied in 1792. In like manner the king himself, seemingly utterly 
oblivious to the spirit and tendencies of the times, as soon as he 
was in possession of the ancient inheritance of his family, began 
to put back everything just as it was before the reforms of the 
Revolution. He always alluded to the year he began to rule as 
the nineteenth of his reign, thus affecting to ignore entirely the 
government of the republic and of the empire. 

The result of this reactionary policy was widespread dissatis- 
faction throughout France. Many began to desire the return of 
Napoleon, and the wish was perhaps what gave rise to the report 
which was spread about that he would come back with the spring 
violets. 



THE HUNDRED DAYS. 687 

In the month of March, 1815, as the commissioners of the 
various powers were sitting at Vienna rearranging the landmarks 
and boundaries obhterated by the French inundation, news was 
brought to them that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was in 
France. At first the members of the Congress were incredulous, 
regarding the thing as a jest, and were with difficulty convinced of 
the truth of the report. 

Taking advantage of the general dissatisfaction with the rule of 
the restored Bourbons, Napoleon had resolved upon a bold push 
for the recovery of his crown. Landing with a few followers at 
one of the southern ports of France, he aroused all the country 
with one of his stirring addresses, and then immediately pushed 
on towards Paris. Never was the changeable, impulsive character 
of the French people better illustrated than now ; and never was 
better exhibited the wonderful personal magnetism of Napoleon. 
His journey to the capital was one continuous ovation. One 
regiment after another, forgetting their recent oath of loyalty to 
the Bourbons, hastened to join his train. His old generals and 
soldiers embraced him with transports of joy. Louis XVIIL, de- 
serted by his army, was left helpless, and, as Napoleon approached 
the gates of Paris, fled from his throne. 

Napoleon desired peace with the sovereigns of Europe ; but they 
did not think the peace of the continent could be maintained so 
long as he sat upon the French throne. For the seventh and last 
time the allies leagued their armies to crush the man of destiny. 
A million of men poured over the frontiers of France. 

Hoping to overwhelm the armies of the allies by striking them 
one after another before they had time to unite. Napoleon moved 
swiftly into Belgium with an army of 130,000, in order to crush 
there the English and Prussians. He first fell in with and de- 
feated the Prussian army under Bliicher, and then faced the Eng- 
hsh at Waterloo (June 18, 1815). 

The story of Waterloo need not be told, — how all day the 
French broke their columns in vain on the English squares ; how, 
at the critical moment at the close of the day, Bliicher with a 



688 FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION 

fresh force of 30,000 Prussians turned the tide of battle ; and 
how the famous Old Guard, that knew how to die but not how to 
surrender, made its last charge, and left its hitherto invincible 
squares upon the lost field. 

A second time Napoleon was forced to abdicate, and a second 
time Louis XVIII. was lifted by the allies upon his unstable 
throne. Bonaparte desired to be allowed to retire to America, 
but his enemies beheved that his presence there would not be con- 
sistent with the safety of Europe. Consequently he was banished 
to the island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, and there closely 
guarded by the British until his death, in 1821. 

2. France since the Second Restoil\tion (1815- ). 

Character of the Period. — The history of France since the 
second restoration of the Bourbons may be characterized briefly. It 
has been simply a continuation of the Revolution, of the struggle 
between democratic and monarchical tendencies. The aim of 
the Revolution was to abolish privileges and establish rights, — 
to give every man lot and part in shaping the government under 
which he lives. These republican ideas and principles have, on 
the whole, notwithstanding repeated reverses, gained ground ; for 
revolutions never move backward. There may be eddies and 
counter-currents in a river, but the steady and powerful sweep of 
the stream is ever onward towards the sea. Not otherwise is it 
with the great political and intellectual movements of history. 

The Revolution of 1830. — Profiting by the lessons of The Hun- 
dred Days, Louis XVIII. ruled after the second restoration with 
reasonable heed to the results and changes effected by the Revo- 
lution. But upon the death of Louis in 1824 and the accession 
of Charles X., a reactionary policy was adopted. The new king 
seemed utterly incapable of profiting by the teachings of the Rev- 
olution. His blind, stubborn course gave rise to the saying, " A 
Bourbon learns nothing and forgets nothing." The result might 
have been foreseen. The people rose in revolt, and by one of 
those sudden movements for which Paris is so noted, the despot 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1830. 689 

was driven into exile, and Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was 
placed on the throne (1830). 

A new constitution was now given to France, and as Louis Phil- 
ippe had travelled about the world considerably, and had expe- 
rienced various vicissitudes of fortune, — having at one time been 
obliged to support himself by teaching mathematics, — the people 
regarded him as one of themselves, and anticipated much from 
their " Citizen King " and their reformed constitution. 

The French "July Revolution," as it is called, lighted the signal 
fires of liberty throughout Europe. In almost every country there 
were uprisings of the Liberals. Existing constitutions were so 
changed as to give the people a larger share in the government ; 
and where there were no constitutions, original charters were 
granted. In some instances, indeed, the uprisings had no other 
result than that of rendering the despotic governments against 
which they were directed more cruel and tyrannical than they 
were before ; yet, on the whole, a decided impulse was given to 
the cause of constitutional, republican government.^ 

Establishment of the Second Republic (1848). — The reign of 
Louis Philippe up to 1848 was very unquiet, yet was not marked 
by any disturbance of great importance. But during all this time 
the ideas of the Revolution were working among the people, and 
the republican party was constantly gaining strength. Finally, in 
1848, some unpopular measures of the government caused an up- 
rising similar to that of 1830. Louis Philippe, under the assumed 
name of Mr. Smith, fled into England. The Second Republic was 
now established. An election being ordered, Louis Napoleon 
Bonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen president 
of the new republic (Dec. 20, 1848). 

1 It was at this time that Belgium became an independent state; for upon 
the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 181 5, the Congress of Vienna had 
made the Low Countries into a single kingdom, and given the crown to a 
prince of the House of Orange. The Belgians now arose and declared them- 
selves independent of Holland, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected 
Leopold L, of Saxe-Coburg, as their king (1831). 



690 FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION. 

The truth of the first Napoleon's declaration, which we have 
before quoted, that a revolution in France is sure to be followed 
by a revolution throughout Europe, was now illustrated anew. 
Almost every throne upon the continent felt the shock of the 
French Revolution of 1848. The constitutions of many of the 
surrounding states again underwent great changes in the interest 
of the people and of liberty. " It is scarcely an exaggeration to 
say that during the month of March, 1 848, not a single day passed 
without a constitution being granted somewhere." France had 
made another of her irresistible invasions of the states of Europe 
— " an invasion of ideas." 

The Second Empire (185 2-1 8 70). — The life of the Second 
Republic spanned only three years. By almost exactly the same 
steps as those by which his uncle had mounted the French throne, 
Louis Napoleon now also ascended to the imperial dignity, crush- 
ing the republic as he rose. 

Dissensions having arisen between the President and the Legis- 
lative Assembly, he suddenly dissolved that body, placed its leaders 
under arrest, and then appealed to the country to indorse what he 
had done. By a most extraordinary vote of 7,437,216 to 640,737 
the nation approved of the President's coup d'etat, and rewarded 
him for it by electing him President for ten years, which was virtu- 
ally making him dictator. The next year he was made emperor, 
and took the title of Napoleon IIL (1852). 

The important political events of the reign of Napoleon IIL 
were the Crimean War (185 3-1 85 6), the Austro-Sardinian War 
(1859), and the Franco- Prussian War (1870-1871). The first 
and second of these wars need not detain us at this time, as we 
shall speak of them hereafter in connection with Russian and 
Italian affairs. 

The third war was with Prussia. The real causes of this war 
were French jealousy of the growing power of Prussia, and the 
Emperor's anxiety to strengthen his government in the affections 
of the French people by reviving the military glory of the reign of 
his great-uncle. The pretext upon which the war was actually 



THE SECOND EMPIRE. 691 

declared was that Prussia was scheming to augment her influence 
by allowing a Prussian prince (Leopold of Hohenzollern) to 
become a candidate for the vacant throne of Spain (see p. 705). 

The French armies invaded Germany, but were pushed back by 
the Prussians and their allies, who followed the retreating enemy 
across the frontier, defeated one large French army at Gravelotte 
(Aug. 18, 1870) and imprisoned it in Metz, captured the strong 
fortress of Sedan, — making a prisoner here of the emperor him- 
self,^ — and then advancing upon Paris, forced that city, after an 
investment of a few months, to capitulate (Jan. 28, 1871). 

The terms of the treaty that followed were that France should 
surrender to Germany the greater portion of the Rhenish provinces 
of Alsace and Lorraine, pay an indemnity of 5,000,000,000 francs 
(about ^1,000,000,000), and consent to the occupation of certain 
portions q^ French territory until the fine was paid. 

The Red Republicans, or Communists, of Paris, indignant at the 
terms of the treaty, shut the gates of the city, and called the pop- 
ulation to arms, declaring that the capital would never submit to 
see France thus dismembered and humiliated. A second reign of 
terror was now set up. The Tuileries, the Hotel de Ville, and many 
other public buildings were burned. The government at length 
succeeded in suppressing the Anarchists, and restoring order. 

The Third Republic (i 871). — The organization of the Third 
Republic was now completed. M. Thiers, the historian, was made 
its first president^ (Aug. 31, 1871). Since the estabhshment of 
the republic, its enemies have been busy and vigilant, hoping to 
see democratic institutions discredited and the monarchy revived. 
But it is believed that each succeeding year of republican govern- 
ment in France strengthens the faith of the French people in 
their ability to govern themselves, and that the history of France 
as a monarchy is ended. 

1 After the war Louis Napoleon found an asylum in England (at Chisel- 
hurst), where he died January 9, 1873. 

2 The successors of M. Thiers have been Marshal MacMahon(i873-i879), 
M. Grevy (1879-1887), and M. Carnot (1887). 



692 RUSSIA SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 



CHAPTER LX. 

RUSSIA SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

Alexander I. and the Holy Alliance. — Upon the downfall of 
Napoleon, Alexander L (i 801-1825) ^^ Russia organized the 
celebrated union known as the Holy Alliance, This was a league 
embracing as its chief members Russia, Austria, and Prussia, the 
ostensible object of which was the maintenance of religion, peace, 
and order in Europe, and the reduction to practice in politics of 
the maxims of Christ. The several sovereigns entering into the 
union promised to be fathers to their people, to rule in love and 
with reference solely to the promotion of the welfare of their 
subjects, and to help one another as brothers to maifitain just 
government and prevent wrong. 

All this had a very millennial look. But the " Holy Alliance " 
very soon became practically a league for the maintenance of 
absolute principles of government, in opposition to the liberal 
tendencies of the age. Under the pretext of maintaining religion, 
justice, and order, the sovereigns of the union acted in concert to 
suppress every aspiration among their subjects for political liberty. 
Yet, when Alexander founded the alliance, he meant all that he 
said. But conspiracies among his own subjects, and popular upris- 
ings throughout Europe, all tended to create in him a revulsion of 
feeling. From an ardent apostle of liberal ideas, such as he was 
during all the earher part of his reign, he was transformed into a 
violent absolutist, and spent all his later years in aiding the des- 
potic rulers of Spain, Italy, and Germany to crush every uprising 
among their subjects for political freedom. 

This reactionary policy of Alexander caused bitter disappoint- 
ment among the Liberals in Russia, the number of whom was large, 



RUSSO-TURKISH WAR OF 1 828-1 829. 693 

for the Russian armies that helped to crush Napoleon came back 
from the West with many new and Hberal ideas awakened by what 
they had seen and heard and experienced. 

The Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. — In 1825 Alexander 
I. was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I. (1825-1855), ''a 
terrible incarnation of autocracy." He carried out the later 
policy of his predecessor, and strove to shut out from his empire 
all the liberalizing influences of Western Europe. 

In 1828, taking advantage of the embarrassment of the Sultan 
through a stubborn insurrection in Greece/ Nicholas declared war 
against the Ottoman Porte. The Balkans were quickly passed, 
and the victorious armies of the Czar were in full march upon Con- 
stantinople, when their advance was checked by the jealous inter- 
ference of England and Austria, through whose mediation the war 
was brought to a close by the Peace of Adrianople (1829). Nich- 
olas restored all his conquests in Europe, but held some provinces 
in Asia which gave him control of the eastern shore of the Euxine. 
Greece was liberated, and Servia became virtually independent of 
the Sultan. Thus the result of the contest was greatly to dimin- 
ish the strength and influence of Turkey, and correspondingly to 
increase the power and prestige of Russia. 

Revolution in Poland (i 830-1832). — The Congress of Vi- 
enna (18 15) re-established Poland as a constitutional kingdom 
dependent upon Russia. But the rule of the Czar over the Poles 
was tyrannical, and they were impatient of an opportunity to throw 
off the Russian yoke. The revolutionary movements of the year 
1830 sent a wave of hope through Poland; the people arose and 
drove out the Russian garrisons. But the armies of the Czar 
quickly poured over the frontiers of the revolted state^ and before 

1 This was the struggle known as the " War of Grecian Independence." 
It was characterized by the most frightful barbarities on the part of the Turks. 
Lord Byron enlisted on the side of the Greeks. The result of the war was 
the freeing of Greece from Turkish rule. England, France, and Russia be- 
came the guardians of the little state, the crown of which was given to Prince 
Otto of Bavaria (Otto I., 1832-1862). 



694 RUSSIA SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

the close of the year 1831 the PoHsh patriots were once more 
under the foot of their Russian master. 

It was a hard fate that awaited the unhappy nation. Their con- 
stitution was taken away, and Poland was made a province of the 
Russian empire (1832). Multitudes were banished to Siberia, 
while thousands more expatriated themselves, seeking an asylum 
in England, America, and other countries. Of all the peoples that 
rose for freedom in 1830 none suffered so cruel and complete an 
extinguishment of their hopes as did the patriot Poles.^ 

The Crimean War (1853-1856). — A celebrated phrase ap- 
plied to the Ottoman Porte by the Czar Nicholas casts a good 
deal of light upon the circumstances that led to the Crimean War. 
"We have on our hands," said the Czar, "a sick man — a very 
sick man ; I tell you frankly it would be a great misfortune if he 
should give us the slip some of these days, especially if it happened 
before all the necessary arrangements were made." 

Nicholas had cultivated friendly relations with the Enghsh gov- 
ernment, and he now proposed that England and Russia, as the 
parties most directly interested, should divide the estate of the 
" sick man." England was to be allowed to take Egypt and Crete, 
while the Turkish provinces in Europe were to be taken under the 
protection of the Czar, which meant of course the complete absorp- 
tion, in due time, of all Southeastern Europe into the Russian 
empire. 

A pretence for hastening the dissolution of the sick man was 
not long wanting. A quarrel between the Greek and Latin Chris- 
tians at Jerusalem about the holy places was made the ground by 
Nicholas for demanding of the Sultan the admission and recogni- 
tion of a Russian protectorate over all Greek Christians in the 
Ottoman dominions. The demand was rejected, and Nicholas 
prepared for war. 

The Sultan appealed to the Western powers for help. England 
and France responded to the appeal, and later Sardinia joined her 

1 For Russia's part in the affairs of the revolutionary years 1848-49, see 
p. 702. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 695 

forces to theirs. England, rejecting the Czar's proposal of a 
division of the dying man's estate, fought to prevent Russia from 
getting through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean, and thus 
endangering her route to her Eastern possessions. The French 
emperor fought to avenge Moscow, and to render his new imperial 
throne attractive to his people by surrounding it with the glamour 
of successful war. Sardinia was led to join England and France 
through the policy of the far-sighted Cavour, who would thus have 
the Sardinians win the gratitude of these powers, so that in the next 
conflict with Austria the Italian patriots might have some strong 
friends to help them. 

The main interest of the struggle centred about Sebastopol, 
in the Crimea, Russia's great naval and military depot, and the 
key to the Euxine. Around this strongly fortified place were 
finally gathered 175,000 soldiers of the allies. The siege, which 
lasted eleven months, was one of the most memorable and de- 
structive in history. The Russian engineer Todleben earned a 
great fame through his masterly defence of the works. The 
English " Light Brigade " earned immortality in their memorable 
charge at Balaklava. The French troops, through their dashing 
bravery, brought great fame to the emperor who had sent them 
to gather glory for his throne. 

The Russians were at length forced to evacuate the place. 
They left it, however, a "second Moscow." The war was now 
soon brought to an end by the Treaty of Paris (1856). Every 
provision of the treaty had in view the maintenance of the integ- 
rity of the empire of the Sultan, and the restraining of the ambi- 
tion of the Czar. Russia was given back Sebastopol, but was 
required to give up some territory at the mouth of the Danube, 
whereby her frontier was pushed back from that river ; to abandon 
all claims to a protectorate over any of the subjects of the Porte ; 
to agree not to raise any more fortresses on the Euxine nor keep 
upon that sea any armed ships, save what might be needed for po- 
lice service. The Christian population of the Turkish dominions 
were placed under the guardianship of the great powers, who were 



696 RUSSIA SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

to see that the Subhme Porte fulfilled its promise of granting per- 
fect civil and religious equality and protection to all its subjects. 

Emancipation of the Serfs (1858-1863). — Alexander II. 
( 1 855-1881), who came to the Russian throne in the midst of 
the Crimean War, abandoned the narrow and intolerant system 
of his predecessor Nicholas, and reverting as it were to the policy 
of Peter the Great, labored for popular reform, and for the intro- 
duction into his dominions of the ideas and civilization of Western 
Europe. The reform which will ever give his name a place in the 
list of those rulers who have conferred singular benefits upon their 
subjects, was the emancipation, by a series of imperial edicts, of 
the Russian serfs, who made up more than 45,000,000 of the pop- 
ulation of the empire. More than half of these serfs belonged to 
the Crown, and were known as Crown peasants. 

The Crown serfs were only nominal bondsmen, their servitude 
consisting in scarcely more than the payment of a light rent. The 
serfs of individual proprietors, however, might be designated as 
semi-slaves. Thus, their owners could flog them in case of dis- 
obedience, but could not sell them individually as slaves are sold ; 
yet when a proprietor sold his estate, the whole community of serfs 
living upon it passed with it to the purchaser. 

Besides the emancipation measure, Alexander's name is associ- 
ated with other reforms, the earlier part of his reign especially 
being characterized by a very liberal spirit. This liberal policy 
was followed until the revolt of the Poles in 1863, when Alex- 
ander was led to adopt a more reactionary policy, a policy which 
persistently pursued has yielded bitter fruit in Nihilism. 

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. — Anxiously as the 
Treaty of Paris had provided for the permanent settlement of the 
Eastern Question, barely twenty-two years had passed before it 
was again up before Europe, and Russia and Turkey were again in 
arms. The Sultan could not or would not give to his Christian 
subjects that equal protection of the laws which he had solemnly 
promised should be given. The Moslem hatred of the Christians 
was constantly leading to disturbance and outrage. In i860 there 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR OF 1 877-1 878. 



697 



was a great massacre of Syrian Christians by the Druses and Turks, 
and in 1876 occurred in Bulgaria the so-called " Bulgarian atroci- 
ties/' massacres of Christian men, women, and children, more 
revolting perhaps than any others of which history tells. The 
greatest indignation was kindled throughout Europe. The Russian 
armies were set in motion (1877). Kars in Asia Minor and 




Gortchakoff. 



Disraeli. Andrassy. Bismarck. 

THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 
(By Anton Von Werner, Prussian Court Painter.) 



Schuwaloff. 



Plevna in European Turkey fell into the hands of the Russians, and 
the armies of the Czar were once more in full march upon Con- 
stantinople, with the prospect of soon ending forever Turkish rule 
on European soil, when England, as in 1829, interfered, and by 
the movements of her iron-clads in the Bosporus again arrested the 
triumphant march of the Russians. 
The Treaty of Berlin (1878) adjusted once more the disorgan- 



698 RUSSIA SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

ized affairs of the Sublime Porte, and bolstered as well as was pos- 
sible the " sick man." But he lost a good part of his estate. 
Out of those provinces of his dominions in Europe in which the 
Christian population was most numerous, there was created a group 
of wholly independent or half-independent states. The absolute 
independence of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro was formally 
acknowledged ; Bulgaria, north of the Balkans, was to enjoy self- 
government, but was to pay a tribute to the Porte ; East Roumelia 
was to have a Christian governor, but was to remain under the 
dominion of the Sultan. The Balkans were thus made the north- 
ern boundary of the Turkish empire in Europe. Bosnia and 
Herzegovina were given to the Austro- Hungarian monarchy. 
Russia acquired some places in Armenia, and also received Bes- 
sarabia on the Lower Danube. 

In a word, Russia regained everything she had lost in the Cri- 
mean struggle, while Turkey was shorn of half her European pos- 
sessions. There were left in Europe under the direct authority of 
the Sultan barely 5,000,000 subjects, of which number about one- 
half are Christians. England alone is responsible for the work of 
emancipation not having been made complete. 

Nihilism and the Exile System. — Russian Nihilism is a smoth- 
ered French Revolution. It is the form which Liberalism has 
taken under the repressions of a despotic autocracy ; for the gov- 
ernment of Russia is a perfect absolutism, the Czar alone being 
legislator, judge, and executive for the Russian nation of 85,000,000 
souls. He makes laws, levies taxes, expends the revenue, and 
condemns his subjects to exile or death, according to his own will, 
without let or hindrance. The terrible character of the repressive 
measures of the government is revealed by the fact that during the 
years 1879 and 1880 sixty thousand persons were, without trial, 
sent into exile in Siberia.^ 

It is a principle of the extreme Nihihsts, that assassination is a 
righteous means of reform. Within the last few years many at- 

1 On the Exile System of Russia read the excellent series of articles by 
George Kennan in The Century Magazine for 1888-9. 



THE EXILE SYSTEM. 699 

tempts have been made upon the Hfe of the reigning Czar. On 
March 13, 1881, Alexander II. was killed by means of a bomb 
filled with dynamite. 

The son of the murdered Czar who now came to the throne as 
Alexander III., immediately instituted a still more sternly repres- 
sive system than that pursued by his father, whom he seemed to 
regard as the victim of the over-liberal policy of the earlier years 
of his reign. It appears to be his determination to close his 
empire against the entrance of all liberal or progressive ideas, po- 
litical, religious, and scientific, of Western Europe. A rigid cen- 
sorship of the press is being maintained (1889), and the writings 
of such authors as Huxley, Spencer, Agassiz, Lyell, and Adam 
Smith, are forbidden circulation. 

There can be but one outcome to this contest between the 
"Autocrat of all the Russias " and his subjects. Either through 
wise concessions on the part of its rulers, or through the throes 
of a terrible revolution, like that of 1789 in France, the Russian 
empire will sooner or later come to possess a constitutional repre- 
sentative government. The Czar of Russia is simply fighting the 
hopeless battle that has been fought and lost by the despotic 
sovereigns of every other European country — a battle which has 
the same invariable issue, the triumph of liberal principles and the 
admission of the people to a participation in the government. 




700 GERMAN FREEDOM AND UNITY. 



CHAPTER LXI. 

GERMAN FREEDOM AND UNITY. 

Formation of the German Confederation (1815). — The German 
states, thirty-nine in number, were reorganized by the Congress of 
Vienna as a Confederation, with the emperor of Austria President 
of the league. A Diet formed of representatives of the several 
states was to settle all questions of dispute between the members 
of the Confederation, and determine matters of general concern. 
In all affairs concerning itself alone, each state was to retain its 
independence. It might carry on war with foreign states, or enter 
into alliance with them, but it must do nothing to harm any mem- 
ber of the Confederation. The articles of union, in a spirit of 
concession to the growing sentiment of the times, provided that 
all sects of Christians should enjoy equal toleration, and that every 
state should establish a constitutional form of government. 

Under this scheme of union Germany was to rest half a century 
— until 1866. Though i\ustria was nominally head of the Con- 
federation, Prussia was actually the most powerful member of the 
league. 

The Uprisings of 1830 : First Step towards Freedom. — For a 
long time previous to the French Revolution there had been grad- 
ually forming among the German people a double sentiment — a 
longing for freedom and for unity. It was the influence of the 
rising patriotic party that had secured the provision in the act of 
confederation which required that all the princes of the union 
should give their states a representative form of government. But 
the faces of these rulers, hke those of the restored Bourbons in 
France, were turned towards the past. They opposed all changes 
that should give the people any part in the government, and clung 
to the old order of things. 



THE CUSTOMS UNION. 701 

We have seen what was the consequence of the reactionary 
poHcy of the Bourbons in France, — how in 1830 the people arose, 
drove out Charles X., and set upon the throne the " Citizen King," 
Louis Phihppe. Events ran exactly the same course in Ger- 
many. The princes refused or neglected to carry out in good faith 
that article of the act of confederation which provided for repre- 
sentative governments in all the German states. The natural 
result was widespread discontent among the people. Conse- 
quently, when the French Revolution of 1830 occurred, a sympa- 
thetic thrill shot through Germany, and in places the popular party 
made threatening demonstrations against their tyrannical rulers. 
The princes of several of the smaller states were forced to give to 
their peoples the liberal constitutions that were demanded. Thus 
a httle was gained for freedom, though after the flutter of the revo- 
lutionary year the princes again took up their retrograde policy, 
and did all in their power to check the popular movement and 
keep governmental matters out of the hands of the people. 

The Customs Union : First Step towards Unity. — Just about 
this time the first step was taken towards the real union of the 
German states through the formation of what is known as the Ctcs- 
toms Union. This was a sort of commercial treaty binding those 
states that became parties to it, and eventually all the states save 
Austria acceded to the arrangement, to adopt among themselves 
the policy of free trade ; that is, there were to be no duties levied 
on goods passing from one state of the Union to another belonging 
to it. The greatest good resulting from the Union was, that it 
taught the people to think of a more perfect national union. And 
as Prussia was a prominent promoter and the centre of the trade 
confederation, it accustomed the Germans to look to her as their 
head and chief. 

Uprising of 1848: a Second Step towards Freedom. — The 
history of Germany from the uprising of 1830 to that of 1848 may 
be summarized by saying that during all these years the people 
were steadily growing more and more earnest in their demands for 
liberal forms of government, while the princes, strangely blind to 



702 GERMAN FREEDOM AND UNITY. 

the spirit and tendency of the times, were stubbornly refusing all 
concessions that should take from themselves any of their power 
as absolute rulers. In some instances the constitutions already 
granted were annulled, or their articles were disregarded. 

Finally, in 1848, news flew across the Rhine of the uprising in 
France against the reactionary government of Louis Philippe, and 
the establishment by the French people of a new republic (see 
p. 689). The intelligence kindled a flame of excitement through- 
out Germany. The liberal party everywhere arose and demanded 
constitutional government. 

Almost all of the princes of the minor states yielded to the pop- 
ular clamor, and straightway adopted the liberal measures and 
instituted the reforms demanded. In Austria and Prussia, how- 
ever, the popular party carried their point only after demonstra- 
tions that issued in bloodshed. Prince Metternich, the celebrated 
prime minister of the Emperor of Austria, was forced to flee the 
country, because he had opposed so obstinately all the demands 
of the Liberals. 

The Revolution of 1848 thus effected much for the cause of 
liberal government in Germany. The movements of that revolu- 
tionary year brought into the hands of the people much more 
power than they had ever before exercised. 

Hungary : Kossuth. — Meanwhile the Austrian emperor was 
having serious trouble with his Hungarian subjects. Led by the 
distinguished orator Louis Kossuth, they had revolted, and de- 
clared their independence. A memorable struggle now followed 
( 1 848-1 849), in which the patriotic Hungarians made a noble 
fight for freedom, but were at last overpowered and crushed by 
the combined Austrian and Russian armies. Hungary was made 
a second Poland (see p. 693). 

Rivalry between Austria and Prussia. — While the attention of 
Austria was directed to the suppression of the Hungarian rebels, 
Prussia proposed a plan for the unification of Germany, with her- 
self as the head of the body, Austria being excluded from the con- 
federation. Several of the states joined Prussia in this move, and 



THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR. 703 

an alliance called the " German Union " was formed. Austria 
watched with the greatest concern this bold move of her rival for 
leadership in German affairs, a move whereby she was to be pushed 
aside entirely, and just as soon as the Hungarian trouble was com- 
posed, she made a counter-move to that of Prussia, by forming a 
confederation of all those states which she could persuade to accept 
her leadership. 

The state of Germany at this moment, divided between the 
allies of Austria and those of Prussia, may be likened to the con- 
dition of Greece at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, when 
the Hellenic states had grouped themselves, according to their 
sympathies, about Athens and Sparta. It does not require a 
second Pericles to see war lowering in the horizon. 

The Seven Weeks' War between Austria and Prussia (1866). 
— The inevitable war which was to decide whether Austria or 
Prussia should be leader in German affairs came on apace. In 
the year 1861, Frederick William IV. of Prussia died, and his 
brother, already an old man of sixty, yet destined to be for more 
than a score of years the central figure in the movement for 
German unity, came to the Prussian throne as William I. (1861- 
1888). He soon called to his side the now distinguished Otto 
Von Bismarck as his prime minister, a man of wonderful energy 
and decision, whose policies have shaped German affairs for a 
quarter of a century. He saw clearly enough how the vexed ques- 
tion between Austria and Prussia was to be settled — "by blood 
and iron." His appearance at the head of Prussian affairs marks 
an epoch in history. He was in disposition a conservative and 
despot, and the liberal party distrusted and hated him. 

Early in 1866 the war opened, the occasion of it being a dis- 
pute in regard to some petty Danish provinces (Schleswig and Hol- 
stein). Almost all of the lesser states grouped themselves about 
Austria. Prussia, however, found a ready ally in Italy (see p. 
713), which served to divert a part of the Austrian forces. Yet it 
seemed an unequal contest, the population of Prussia at this 
time not being more than one-third (19,000,000) that of the states 



704 GERMAN FREEDOM AND UNITY. 

arrayed against her. But Bismarck had been preparing Prussia for 
the struggle which he had long foreseen^ and now the little king- 
dom, with the best disciplined army in the world, headed by the 
great commander Von Moltke, was to astonish the world by a 
repetition of her achievements under the inspiration of Frederick 
the Great. 

The Prussian armies, numbering more than a quarter of a mil- 
lion of men, began to move about the middle of June. Battle 
followed battle in rapid succession. Almost every encounter 
proved a victory for the Prussians. On the third of July was 
fought the great battle of Sadowa, in Bohemia. It was Austria's 
Waterloo. The emperor was forced to sue for peace, and on the 
twenty-third day of August the Peace of Prague was signed. 

The long debate between Austria and Prussia was over. By the 
terms of the treaty Austria was shut out from participation in Ger- 
man affairs. Prussia was now without a rival in Germany. 

Establishment of the North-German Union (1867). — Now 
quickly followed the reorganization of the northern states of 
Germany into what was called the North- German Union, under 
the leadership of Prussia. Prussia was to have command of the 
entire military force of the several states composing the league, 
the Prussian king being President of the Union. A constitution 
was adopted which provided that the affairs of the confederation 
should be managed by a Diet, the members of which were to be 
chosen by the different states. 

Thus was a long step taken towards German unity. Bismarck's 
policy of " blood and iron," though seemingly rough and brutal, 
now promised to prove a cure indeed for all of Germany's troubles. 
Though so much had been effected, there was still remaining much 
to be desired. The states to the south of the Main — Baden, 
Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg — were yet wanting to complete the 
unification of the Fatherland. Many patriots both north and south 
of the dividing line earnestly desired the perfect union of North 
and South. But the Catholics of the southern states were bitterly 
opposed to Prussia's being exalted to the chief place in Germany, 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. 705 

because she was Protestant, while many of the democratic party 
were loth to see Germany reconstructed under the supremacy of 
Prussia on account of the repressive and despotic character of her 
government. But the fervid enthusiasm awakened by another suc- 
cessful war serves to weld the states of both North and South into 
a firm and close union, and complete the work of Germany's 
unification. 

The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). — It will be recalled 
with what jealousy France viewed the rise to power of the House 
of Hohenzollern (see p. 691). All of her old bitter hostihty to 
the House of Austria seems to have been transferred to her success- 
ful rival in the North, So when in 1870 the vacant throne of 
Spain was offered to Leopold, a member of the Hohenzollern fam- 
ily, the Emperor Napoleon III. affected to see in this a scheme 
on the part of the House of Hohenzollern to unite the interests of 
Prussia and of Spain, just as Austria and Spain were united, with 
such disastrous consequences to the peace of Europe, under the 
princes of the House of Hapsburg. Even after Leopold, to avoid 
displeasing France, had declined the proffered crown, the Emperor 
Napoleon demanded of King William assurance that no member 
of the House of Hohenzollern should ever become a candidate for 
the Spanish throne. The demand was rudely made, was refused, 
and the two nations rushed together in a struggle which was des- 
tined to prove terribly disastrous to France, and memorable to 
Germany for the glory and unity it won for her. 

The important thing for us to notice here is the enthusiasm 
that the war awakened not only throughout the states of the 
North-German Confederation, but among the states of the South 
as well, which placed their armies at the disposal of King William. 
The cause was looked upon as a national one, and a patriotic fer- 
vor stirred the hearts of all Germans alike. 

Establishment of the New German Empire (187 1). — The 
astonishing successes of the German armies on French soil (see 
p. 691) created among Germans everywhere such patriotic pride 
in the Fatherland, that all the obstacles which had hitherto pre- 



706 



GERMAN FREEDOM AND UNITY. 



vented anything more than a partial union of the members of the 
Germanic body were now swept out of the way by an irresistible 
tide of national sentiment. While the siege of Paris was progress- 
ing, commissioners were sent by the southern states to Versailles, the 
headquarters of King WilUam, to represent to him that they were 




PROCLAMATION OF KING WILLIAM AS EMPEROR OF GERMANY, 
AT VERSAILLES, JANUARY, 1871. 

(By Anton Von Werner, Prussian Court Painter.) 

ready and anxious to enter the North-German Union. Thus in 
rapid succession Baden, Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg were received 
into the Confederation, the name of which was now changed to 
that of the German Confederation. 

Scarcely was this accomplished, when, upon the suggestion of 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE. 707 

the king of Bavaria, King William, who now bore the title of Pres- 
ident of the Confederation, was given the title of German Em- 
peror, which honor was to be hereditary in his family. On the 
1 8th of January, 1871, within the Palace of Versailles, — the siege 
of Paris being still in progress, — amidst indescribable enthusiasm, 
the Imperial dignity was formally conferred upon King William, 
and Germany became a constitutional Empire. 

Thus amidst the throes of war the free German nation was bom. 
The German people, after long centuries of division and servitude, 
had at last found Freedom and Unity. 

!\ 




708 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY. 



CHAPTER LXIL 

LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY. 

Italy at the Downfall of Napoleon. — The Italian people, as 
being the most dangerously infected with the ideas of the Revolu- 
tion, were, by the reactionary Congress of Vienna, condemned to 
the most strict and ignominious slavery. The former common- 
wealths were forbidden to restore their ancient institutions, while 
the petty principalities were handed over in almost every case to 
the tyrants or the heirs of the tyrants who had ruled them before 
the Revolution. Austria appropriated Venetia and Lombardy, and 
from Northern Italy assumed to direct the affairs of the whole 
peninsula. Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza v/ere given to 
princes of the House of Hapsburg. Naples was restored to its old 
Bourbon rulers. The Pope and Victor Emmanuel I., king of Sar- 
dinia, were the only native rulers. 

" Italy was divided on the map, but she had made up her mind 
to be one." The Revolution had sown the seeds of Liberty, and 
time only was needed for their maturing. The Cisalpine, the Ligu- 
rian, the Parthenopsean, the Tiberine republics (see pp. 668, 670), 
short-lived though they were, had awakened in the people an aspi- 
ration for self-government ; while Napoleon's kingdom of Italy 
(see p. 676, n.), though equally delusive, had nevertheless inspired 
thousands of Italian patriots with the sentiment of national unity. 
Thus the French Revolution, disappointing as seemed its issue, 
really imparted to Italy her first impulse in the direction of free- 
dom and of national organization. 

Arbitrary Rule of the Restored Princes. — The setting up of 
the overturned thrones meant, of course, the re-instating of the 
old tyrannies. The restored despots came back with an impla- 
cable hatred of everything French. They swept away all French 



THE CARBONARI. 709 

institutions that were supposed to tend in the least to Liberahsm. 
At Rome even vaccination and street-lamps, French innovations, 
were abolished. In Sardinia, nothing that bore the French stamp, 
nothing that had been set up by French hands, was allowed to 
remain. Even the French furniture in the royal palace at Turin 
was thrown out of the windows, and the French plants in the 
royal gardens were pulled up root and branch. 

The Carbonari : Uprising of 1820-1821. — The natural results 
of the arbitrary rule and retrogressive policy of the restored princes 
was deep and widespread discontent. The French Revolution, as 
we have said, had sown broadcast in Italy the seeds of liberty, and 
their growth could not be checked by the repressions of tyranny. 
An old secret organization, the members of which were known as 
the Carbonari (charcoal-burners), formed the nucleus about which 
gathered the elements of disaffection. 

In 1820, incited by a revolution in Spain, the Carbonari raised 
an insurrection in Naples, and forced King Ferdinand, who was 
ruler of both Naples and Sicily, now united under the name of the 
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to grant his Neapolitan subjects what 
was known as the Spanish Constitution of 181 2. But Prince Met- 
ternich (see p. 702), who had been watching the doings of the Lib- 
eral party in Naples, interfered to mar their plans. He reasoned 
that Lombardy and Venetia could be kept free from the contagion 
of Liberalism only by the stamping out of the infection wherever 
else in Italy it might show itself. Hence 60,000 Austrian troops 
were sent to crush the revolutionists. Ferdinand was re-instated 
in his former absolute authority, and everything was put back on 
the old footing. 

Meanwhile a similar revolution was running its course in Pied- 
mont. King Victor Emmanuel I., rather than yield to the de- 
mands of his people for a constitutional government, gave up his 
crown, and was succeeded by his brother Charles Felix, who, by 
threatening to call to his aid the Austrian army, compelled his sub- 
jects to cease their clamor about kings ruling, not by the grace of 
God, but by the will of the people. 



710 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY. 

The Revolution of 1830-1831. — For just ten years all Italy lay 
in sullen vassalage to Austria. Then the revolutionary years of 
1830-31 witnessed a repetition of the scenes of 1820-21. The 
revolution in France which placed Louis Philippe upon the French 
throne (see p. dZ'^) sent a tremor of excitement and hope through 
all Italy. The centre of the revolution was the Papal States. But 
the presence of Austrian troops, who, " true to their old principle 
of hurrying with their extinguishers to any spot in Italy where a 
crater opened," had poured into Central Italy, resulted in the 
speedy quenching of the flames of the insurrection. 

The Three Parties : Plans for National Organization. — Twice 
now had Austrian armies crushed the aspirations of the Italians 
after national unity and freedom. Itahan hatred of these foreign 
intermeddlers who were causing them to miss their destiny, grew 
ever more intense, and " death to the Germans " became the watch- 
cry that united all the peoples of the peninsula. 

But while united in their deadly hatred of the Austrians, the 
Itahans were divided in their views respecting the best plan for na- 
tional organization. One party, known as "Young Italy," founded 
and inspired by the patriot Joseph Mazzini, wanted a republic ; 
another party wanted a confederation of the various states, with 
the Pope as chief; while still a third wished to see Italy a con- 
stitutional monarchy, with the king of Sardinia at its head. 

The Revolution of 1848-1849. — After the suppression of the 
uprising of 1830, until the approach of the momentous year of 
1848, Italy lay restless under the heel of her oppressor. The 
republican movements throughout the continent of Europe which 
characterized that year of revolutions, inspired the Italian patriots 
to make another attempt to achieve independence and nationality. 
Everywhere throughout the peninsula they rose against their des- 
potic rulers, and forced them to grant constitutions and institute 
reforms. But through the intervention of the Austrians and the 
French ^ the third Italian revolution was thwarted. By the autumn 

1 This interference by the French in Italian affairs was instigated by their 
jealousy of Austria, and by the anxious desire of Louis Napoleon to win the 
good-will of the Catholic clergy in France. 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 711 

of the year 1849 the Liberals were everywhere crushed, their lead- 
ers executed, imprisoned, or driven into exile, and the dream of 
Italy's unity and freedom dispelled by the hard present fact of 
renewed tyranny and foreign domination. 

Much, however, had been gained. The patriotic party had had 
revealed to itself its strength, and at the same time the necessity 
of united action, — of the adoption of a single policy. Henceforth 
the Republicans and Federalists were more inclined to give up as 
impracticable their plans of national organization, and with the 
ConstitutionaHsts to look upon the kingdom of Sardinia as the 
only possible basis and nucleus of a free and united Italy. 

Victor Emmanuel II., Count Cavour, and Garibaldi. — Sardinia 
was a state which had gradually grown into power in the northwest 
corner of the peninsula. The throne was at this time held by 
Victor Emmanuel 11. (1849-1878). To him it was that the hopes 
of the Italian patriots now turned. Nor were these hopes to be 
disappointed. Victor Emmanuel was the destined liberator of 
Italy, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that his was the 
name in which the achievement was to be effected by the wise 
policy of his great minister Count Cavour, and the reckless daring 
of the hero Garibaldi. 

Count Cavour was a man of large hopes and large plans. His 
single aim and purpose was the independence and unification of 
Italy. He was the genius of Italian liberty. Garibaldi, " the hero 
of the red shirt," was the knight-errant of ItaHan independence. 
Though yet barely past middle life, he had led a career singularly 
crowded with varied experiences and romantic adventures. Be- 
cause of his violent republicanism, he had already been twice 
exiled from Italy. 

The Austro-Sardinian War (185 9-1 860). — The hour for strik- 
ing another blow for the freedom of Italy had now arrived. In 
1859 Count Cavour, in the pursuance of his national pohcy for Italy, 
having first made a secret arrangement with the French emperor, 
gave Austria to understand that unless she granted Lombardy and 
Venetia free government and ceased to interfere in the affairs of 



712 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY. 

the rest of Italy, Sardinia would declare war against her. Of 
course the Austrian government refused to accede to the demand, 
and almost immediately war followed. The French emperor, 
actuated probably less by gratitude for the aid of the Sardinian 
contingent in the Crimean struggle (seep. 726) than by jealousy 
of Austria and the promise of Savoy and Nice in case of a suc- 
cessful issue of the war, supported the Sardinians with the armies 
of France. The two great victories of Magenta and Solferino 
seemed to promise to the allies a triumphant march to the 
Adriatic. But just now the threatening attitude of Prussia and 
other German states, in connection with other considerations, led 
Napoleon to enter upon negotiations of peace with the Austrian 
emperor at Villafranca. 

The outcome was that Austria retained Venice, but gave up to 
Sardinia the larger part of Lombardy. The Sardinians were bit- 
terly disappointed that they did not get Venetia, and loudly ac- 
cused the French emperor of having betrayed their cause, since at 
the outset he had promised them that he would free Italy from the 
mountains to the sea. But Sardmia found compensation for Ven- 
ice in the accession of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and Romagna, 
the peoples of which states, having discarded their old rulers, be- 
sought Victor Emmanuel to permit them to unite themselves to 
his kingdom. Thus, as the result of the war, the king of Sardinia 
had added to his subjects a population of 9,000,000. One long 
step was taken in the way of Italian unity and freedom. 

Sicily and Naples added to Victor Emmanuel's Kingdom 
(i860). — The romantic and adventurous daring of the hero Gar- 
ibaldi now added Sicily and Naples to the possessions of Victor 
Emmanuel, and changed the kingdom of Sardinia into the king- 
dom of Italy. 

The king of Naples and Sicily, Francis II., was a typical despot. 
In i860 his subjects rose in revolt. Victor Emmanuel and his 
minister Cavour were in sympathy with the movement, yet dared 
not send the insurgents aid through fear of arousing the jealousy 
of Austria and of France, But Garibaldi, untrammelled by any 
such considerations, having gathered a band of a thousand or more 



VENETIA ADDED TO THE KINGDOM. 7l| 

volunteers, set sail from Genoa for Sicily, where upon landing he 
assumed the title of Dictator of Sicily for Victor Emmanuel, King 
of Italy, and quickly drove the troops of King Francis out of the 
island. Then crossing to the mainland, he marched triumphantly 
to Naples, whose inhabitants hailed him tumultuously as their De- 
liverer. 

The Neapolitans and Sicilians now voted almost unanimously 
for annexation to the Sardinian kingdom. The hero Garibaldi, 
having first met and hailed his Sovereign " King of Italy," surren- 
dered his dictatorship, and retired to the island of Capri, in the 
bay of Naples. He had earned the lasting gratitude of his country. 

Thus was another great step taken in the unification of Italy. 
Nine millions more of Italians had become the subjects of Victor 
Emmanuel. There was now wanting to the complete union of 
Italy only Venetia and the Papal territories. 

Venetia added to the Kingdom (1866). — The Seven Weeks' 
War which broke out between Prussia and Austria in 1866 afforded 
the Italian patriots the opportunity for which they were watching 
to make Venetia a part of the kingdom of Italy. Victor Emman- 
uel formed an alliance with the king of Prussia, one of the condi- 
tions of which was that no peace should be made with Austria 
until she had surrendered Venetia to Italy. The speedy issue of 
the war added the coveted territory to the dominions of Victor 
Emmanuel. Rome alone was now lacking to the complete unifi- 
cation of Italy. 

Rome becomes the Capital (1870). — After the liberation of 
Naples and Sicily the city of Turin, the old capital of the Sardinian 
kingdom, was made the capital of the new kingdom of Italy. In 
1865 the seat of government was transferred to Florence. But the 
Italians looked forward to the time when Rome, the ancient mis- 
tress of the peninsula and of the world, should be their capital. 
The power of the Pope, however, was upheld by the French, and 
this made it impossible for the Italians to have their will in this 
matter without a conflict with France. 

But events soon gave the coveted capital to the Italian govern- 
ment. In 1870 came the sharp, quick war between France and 



714 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY. 

Prussia, and the French troops at Rome were hastily summoned 
home. Upon the overthrow of the French Monarchy and the 
estabUshment of the Repubhc, Victor Emmanuel was informed 
that France would no longer sustain the Papal power. The Italian 
government at once gave notice to the Pope that Rome would 
henceforth be considered a portion of the kingdom of Italy, and 
forthwith an Italian army entered the city, which by a vote of 
133,681 to 1,507 joined itself to the Italian nation. The family was 
now complete. Rome was the capital of a free and united Italy. 
July 2, 187 1, Victor Emmanuel^ himself entered the city and took 
up his residence there. 

End of the Temporal Power of the Pope. — Through the ex- 
tension of the authority of the Italian government over the Papal 
states, the Pope was despoiled of the last vestige of that tem- 
poral power wherewith Pepin and Charlemagne had invested the 
Bishops of Rome more than a thousand years before (see p. 404) . 
The Papal troops were disbanded, but the Pope, Pius IX., still 
retained all his spiritual authority, the Vatican with its 11,000 
chambers being reserved to him as a place of residence. Just 
a few months before the loss of his temporal sovereignty a great 
Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church had proclaimed 
the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, which declares decrees of the 
Pope " on questions of faith and morals " to be infallible. 

Conclusion. — Although there has been much antagonism be- 
tween the Vatican and the Quirinal, that is, between the Pope and 
the Italian government, still reform and progress have marked 
Italian affairs since the events of 1870. A public system of edu- 
cation has been established ; brigandage has been suppressed ; 
agriculture has been encouraged ; while the naval and military 
resources of the peninsula have been developed to such an extent 
that Italy, so recently the prey of foreign sovereigns, of petty native 
tyrants, and of adventurers, is now justly regarded as one of the 
great powers of Europe. 

1 In the early part of the year 1878 Victor Emmanuel died, and his son 
came to the throne, with the title of Humbert I., the second king of Italy. 



THE THREE CHIEF MATTERS. 715 



QUEEN VICTORIA ON THE DAY OF HER CORONATION. 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

The Three Chief Matters. — English history since the close of 
the Napoleonic wars embraces a multitude of events. A short 
chapter covering the entire period will possess no instructive value 
unless it reduces the heterogeneous mass of facts to some sort of 
unity by placing events in relation with their causes, and thus 
showing how they are connected with a few broad national move- 
ments or tendencies. 

Studying the period in this way, we shall find that very many of 
its leading events may be summed up under the three following 
heads: i. Progress towards democracy; 2. Expansion of the 
principle of religious equality; 3. Growth of the British Empire in 
the East. 

I. Progress towards Democracy. 

Effects of the French Revolution upon Liberalism in Eng- 
land. — The French Revolution at first gave a fresh impulse to 
liberal tendencies in England. The English Liberals watched the 



716 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

course of the French Repubhcans with the deepest interest and 
sympathy. It will be recalled how the statesman Fox rejoiced at 
the fall of the Bastile, and what auguries of hope he saw in the 
event (see p. 652). The young writers Coleridge, Wordsworth, 
and Southey were all in sympathy with democratic sentiments, and 
inspired with a generous enthusiasm for political liberty and 
equality. But the wild excesses of the French Levellers terrified 
the English Liberals. There was a sudden revulsion of feeling. 
Liberal sentiments were denounced as dangerous and revolu- 
tionary. 

But in a few years after the downfall of Napoleon, the terrors of 
the French Revolution were forgotten. Liberal sentiments began 
to spread among the masses. The people very justly complained 
that, while the English government claimed to be a government 
of the people, they had no part in it.^ 

Now, it is instructive to note the different ways in which Liber- 
alism was dealt with by the English government and by the rulers 
on the continent. In the continental countries the rising spirit 
of democracy was met by cruel and despotic repressions. The 
people were denied by their rulers all participation in the affairs 
of government. We have seen the result. Liberalism triumphed 
indeed at last, but triumphed only through Revolution. 

In England, the government did not resist the popular demands 
to the point of Revolution. It made timely concessions to the grow- 
ing spirit of democracy. Hence here, instead of a series of rev- 
olutions, we have a series of reform measures, which, gradually 
popularizing the House of Commons, at last renders the English 
nation not alone in name, but in reality, a self-governing people. 

The Reform Bill of 1832. — The first Parliamentary step in 

1 The English Revolution of 1688 transferred authority from the king to 
the Parliament. The elective branch of that body, however, rested upon a 
very narrow electoral basis. Out of 5,000,000 Englishmen who should have 
had a voice in the government, not more than 160,000 were voters, and these 
were chiefly of the rich upper classes. At the opening of the nineteenth cen- 
tury the number of electors in Scotland did not exceed 3000. 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 717 

reform was taken in 1832. To understand this important act, a 
retrospective glance becomes necessary. 

When, in 1265, the Commons were first admitted to Parliament 
(see p. 480), members were called only from those cities and bor- 
oughs whose wealth and population fairly entitled them to represen- 
tation. In the course of time some of these places dwindled in 
population, and new towns sprang up : yet the decayed boroughs 
retained their ancient privilege of sending members to Parliament, 
while the new towns were left entirely without representation. Thus 
Old Sarum, an ancient town now utterly decayed and without a 
single inhabitant, was represented in the Commons by two mem- 
bers. Furthermore, the sovereign, for the purpose of gaining influ- 
ence in the Commons, had, from time to time, given unimportant 
places the right of returning members to the Lower House. In 1 793 
less than 200 electors, or voters, sent to the Commons 197 members. 
Of course, elections in these small or '^ pocket boroughs," as they 
were called, were almost always determined by the corrupt influence 
of the crown or of the resident lords. The Lower House of Parlia- 
ment was thus filled with the nominees of the king, or some great 
lord, or with persons who had bought the office, often with little 
effort at concealment. At the same time, such large, recently 
grown manufacturing towns as Birmingham and Manchester had 
no representation at all in the Commons. 

Agitation was begun for the reform of this corrupt and farcical 
system of representation. The contest between the Whigs and 
the Tories, or Liberals and Conservatives, was long and bitter. 
The Conservatives of course opposed all reform. Bill after bill 
was introduced into Parliament to correct the evil, but m.ost of 
these, after having passed the Commons, were lost in the House 
of Lords. At last the public feeling became so strong and violent 
that the lords were forced to yield, and the Reform Bill of 1832 
became a law.^ 

By this act the electoral system of the kingdom was radically 

1 The popularizing of the House of Commons led to a series of acts of a 
popular character. Among them was an act (in 1833) for the abolition of 



718 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

changed. Fifty-six of the "rotten boroughs" were disfranchised, 
and the 143 seats in the Lower House which they had filled were 
given to different counties and large towns. The bill also greatly 
increased the number of electors by extending the right of voting 
to all persons owning or leasing property of a certain value. We 
can scarcely exaggerate the importance of this Reform Bill. 

Chartism : the Revolutionary Year of 1848. — But while the 
Reform bill of 1832 was almost revolutionary in the principle it 
estabhshed, it went only a little way in the application of the 
principle. It admitted to the franchise the middle classes only. 
The great laboring class were given no part in the government. 
They now began an agitation, characterized by much bitterness, 
known as Chartism, from a document called the " People's Char- 
ter," which embodied the reforms they desired. These were 
" universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, the division 
of the country into equal electoral districts, the abolition of the 
property qualifications of members, and payment for their services." 

The agitation for these changes in the constitution went on with 
more or less violence until 1848. That year the Chartists, en- 
couraged by the revolutions then shaking almost every throne 
on the European continent, indulged in riotous demonstrations 
which frightened the law-abiding citizens, and brought discredit 
upon themselves. Their organization now fell to pieces. The 
reforms, however, which they had labored to secure, were, in the 
main, desirable and just, and the most important of them have 
since been adopted and made a part of the English Constitution. 

The Reform Bill of 1867. —The Reform Bill of 1867 was sim- 
ply another step taken by the English government in the direction 
of the Reform Bill of 1832. Like that measure, it was passed only 
after long and violent agitation and discussion both without and 
within the walls of Parliament. Its main effect was the extension 
of the right of voting, — the enfranchisement of the great " fourth 
estate, or the masses." By it also a few small boroughs in Eng- 

slavery throughout the British colonies. 780,993 slaves in the British West 
Indies were freed at a cost to the English nation of ;i^20,ooo,ooo. 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 719 

land — for the bill did not concern either Ireland or Scotland, sep- 
arate bills of somewhat similar provisions being framed for them 
— were disfranchised, and several new ones created. 

The Reform Bill of 1884. — One of the conservative leaders, 
the Earl of Derby, in the discussions upon the Reform Bill of 1867, 
said, " No doubt we are making a great experiment, and taking a 
leap in the dark." Just seventeen years after the passage of that 
bill, the English people were ready to take another leap. But they 
were not now leaping in the dark. The wisdom and safety of 
admitting the lower classes to a participation in the government 
had been demonstrated. 

In 1884 Mr. Gladstone, then prime minister, introduced and 
pushed to a successful vote a new reform bill, more radical and 
sweeping in its provisions than any preceding one. It increased 
the number of voters from about 3,000,000 to about 5,000,000. 
The qualification of voters in the counties was made the same as 
that required of voters in the boroughs. Hence its effect was to 
enfranchise the great agricultural classes. 

Only the Forms of Monarchy remain. — The English govern- 
ment is now in reality as democratic as our own. Only the forms 
of monarchy remain. It does not seem probable that these can 
long withstand the encroachments of democracy. Hereditary 
privilege, as represented by the House of Lords and the Crown, is 
likely soon to be abolished. 

Home Rule for Ireland. — In connection with the above out- 
line of the democratic movement in England, a word must be said 
about the so-called Home Rule movement in Ireland. 

The legislative independence secured by Ireland in 1782 (see 
p. 632), was maintained only a short time. In 1798, England be- 
ing then engaged in war with the revolutionists of France, the 
Irish rose in revolt, with the purpose of setting up an Irish re- 
public. The uprising was quelled, and then as a measure of 
security the Irish Parliament was abolished (1801) and Ireland 
given representation in the English Parliament, just as had been 
done in the case of Scotland at the time of the legislative union of 
England and Scotland (see p. 629). 



720 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

The Irish patriots bitterly resented this extinction of the legis- 
lative independence of Ireland, and denounced as traitors those 
members of the last Irish Parliament who, corrupted by the English 
minister, William Pitt (the younger), had voted away Irish liberties. 
Consequently from the day of the Union to the present, there has 
been more or less agitation for its repeal and the re-establishment 
of the old Irish Parliament. In 1841, under the inspiration of the 
eloquent Daniel O'Connell, Ireland was brought to the verge of 
insurrection, but the movement was suppressed. In 1886 Mr. 
Gladstone, their prime minister, introduced a bill in Parliament, 
granting a separate legislation to Ireland. This led to bitter debate 
both within and without the walls of Parliament, and at the present 
time (1889), the question of Home Rule for Ireland is the leading 
issue in English politics. ^ 

2. Expansion of the Principle of Religious Equality. 

Religious Freedom and Religious Equality. — x\longside the 
political movement traced in the preceding section has run a 
similar one in the religious realm. This is a growing recognition 
by the English people of the true principle of religious toleration. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century there was in England 
religious freedom, but no religious equality. That is to say, one 
might be a Catholic or a dissenter, if he chose to be, without 
fear of persecution. Dissent from the Established Church was 
not unlawful. But one's being a dissenter disquahfied him from 
holding certain public offices. Where there exists such discrimi- 
nation against any religious sect, or where any one sect is favored 
or sustained by the government, there of course is no religious 
equality, although there may be religious freedom. Progress in 
this direction, then, has consisted in the growth of a really tolerant 
spirit, which has led to the removal from Catholics, Protestant 

1 Closely connected with this political question of Home Rule for Ireland, is 
the agrarian, or land trouble. At bottom, this is a matter that involves the 
right of private property in land, and touches questions that belong to the In- 
dustrial Age (see p. 729) rather than to that of the Political Revolution. 



EFFECTS OF METHODISM UPON TOLERATION. Ill 

dissenters, and Jews all civil disabilities, and the placing of all sects 
on an absolute equality before the law. This is but a completion 
of the work of the Protestant Reformation. 

Methodism and its Effects upon Toleration. — One thing that 
helped to bring prominently forward the question of emancipating 
non-conformists from the civil disabilities under which they were 
placed, was the great religious movement known as Methodism, 
which during the latter part of the eighteenth and the beginning of 
the nineteenth century revolutionized the religious life of England.^ 
By vastly increasing the body of Protestant dissenters, Methodism 
gave new strength to the agitation for the repeal of the laws which 
bore so heavily upon them. 

Disabilities removed from Protestant Dissenters (1828). — 
One of the earliest and most important of the acts of Parliament 
in this century in recognition of the principle of religious equality, 
was the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, in so far as they 
bore upon Protestant dissenters. These were acts passed in the 
reign of Charles II., which required every officer of a corporation, 
and all persons holding civil and military positions, to take certain 
oaths, and partake of the communion according to the rites of the 
Anglican Church. It is true that these laws were not now strictly 
enforced j nevertheless, the laws were invidious and vexatious, and 
the Protestant dissenters demanded their repeal. The result of 
the debate in Parliament was the repeal of such parts of the 
ancient acts as it was necessary to rescind in order to relieve 
Protestant dissenters, — that is, the provision requiring persons 
holding office to be communicants of the AngUcan Church. 

1 The leaders of the movement were George Whitefield (i 714-1770) and 
John Wesley (i 703-1 791). Whitefield became the leader of the Calvinistic 
Methodists, and Wesley the founder of the sect known as Wesleyans. The 
Methodists at first had no thought of establishing a church distinct from the 
Anglican, but simply aimed to form within the Established Church a society of 
earnest, devout laymen, somewhat like that of the Young Men's Christian 
Association in our present churches. Petty persecution, however, eventually 
constrained them to go out from the established organization and form a 
Church of their own. This of course constituted them dissenters. 



722 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

Disabilities removed from the Catholics (1829). — The bill of 
1828 gave no relief to Catholics. They were still excluded from 
Parliament and various civil offices by the declarations of belief 
and the oaths required of office-holders, — declarations and oaths 
which no good Catholic could conscientiously make. They now 
demanded that the same concessions be made them that had been 
granted Protestant dissenters. The ablest champion of Catholic 
emancipation was the eloquent Daniel O'Connell, an Irish patriot. 

A threatened revolt on the part of the Irish Catholics hurried 
the progress of what was known as the Catholic Emancipation Act 
through Parliament. This law opened all the offices of the king- 
dom, below the crown, — save" that of Lord Chancellor of England 
and Ireland, the Viceroyalty of Ireland, and a few others, — to the 
Catholic subjects of the realm. 

Disabilities removed from the Jews. — The Jews were still 
laboring under all the disabilities which had now been removed 
from Protestant dissenters and Catholics. In 1845 ^^ ^^^ was 
passed by Parliament which so changed the oath required for 
admission to corporate offices — the oath contained the words 
" on the faith of a Christian " — as to open them to Jews. 

In 1858, after a long and unseemly struggle, the House of 
Commons was opened to the long-proscribed race ; and about a 
quarter of a century later, the House of Lords admitted to a seat 
Baron Rothschild, the first peer of Hebrew faith that had ever sat 
in that body. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church (1369). — Thirty years 
after the Cathohc Emancipation Act, the English government took 
another great step in the direction of religious equality, by the dis- 
establishment of the State Church in Ireland. 

The Irish have always and steadily refused to accept the relig- 
ion which their Enghsh conquerors have somehow felt constrained 
to force upon them. The vast majority of the people are to-day 
and ever have been Cathohcs ; yet up to the time where we have 
now arrived these Irish Catholics had been compelled to pay tithes 
and fees for the maintenance among them of the Anglican Church 



DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH. 723 

worship. Meanwhile their own churches, in which the great masses 
were instructed and cared for spiritually, had to be kept up by 
voluntary contributions. The proposition to do away with this 
grievance by the disestablishment of the State Church in Ireland 
was bitterly opposed by the Conservatives ; but at length, after a 
memorable debate, the Liberals, under the lead of Bright and Glad- 
stone, the latter then prime minister, carried the measure. This 
was in 1869, but the actual disestablishment was not to take place 
until the year 187 1, at which time the Irish State Church, ceasing 
to exist as a state institution, became a free Episcopal Church. 
The historian May pronounces this " the most important eccle- 
siastical matter since the Reformation." 

Proposed Disestablishment of the State Church in England 
and in Scotland. — The perfect application of the principle of re- 
ligious equality demands, in the opinion of many English Liberals, 
the disestablishment of the State Church in England and in Scot- 
land.^ They feel that for the government to maintain any partic- 
ular sect, is to give the State a monopoly in religion. They would 
have the churches of all denominations placed on an absolute equal- 
ity. Especially in Scotland is the sentiment in favor of disestab- 
lishment very strong. 



3. Growth of the British Empire in the East. 

The Clew to England's Foreign Policy in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. — Seeking the main fact of modern English history. Pro- 
fessor Seeley- finds it in the expansion of England. He says, in 
substance, that the expansion of England in the New World and 
in Asia is the formula which sums up for England the history of 
the last three centuries. As the outgrowth of this extension into 
remote lands of English population or influence, England has come 
successively into sharp rivalry with three of the leading powers of 
Europe, her competitors in the field of colonization or in the race 
for empire. The seventeenth century stands out as an age of in- 

1 The Established Church in Scotland is the Presbyterian. 

^ J. R. Seeley, in his work entitled The Expansion of England. 



724 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

tense rivalry between England and Spain ; the eighteenth was a 
period of gigantic competition between England and France ; while 
the nineteenth has been an age of jealous rivalry between England 
and Russia. 

England triumphed over Spain and France ; it remains to be 
seen whether she will in like manner triumph over Russia. 

We have space simply to indicate how England's foreign policies 
and wars during the present century have grown out of her Eastern 
connections, and her fear of the overshadowing influence of the 
Colossus of the North. 

Rise of the English Power in India. — And first, we must say 
a word respecting the establishment of English authority in India. 
By the close of the seventeenth century the East India Company 
(see p. 603) had founded establishments at Bombay, Calcutta, and 
Madras, the three most important centres of English population 
and influence in India at the present time. The company's efforts 
to extend its authority in India were favored by the decayed state 
into which the Great Mogul Empire — founded in Northern India 
by the Tartar conquerors (see p. 461) — had fallen, and by the 
contentions of the independent native princes among themselves. 

For a long time it was a matter of doubt whether the empire to 
be erected upon the ruins of the Great Mogul Empire and of the 
contending native states should be French or English. ' About the 
middle of the eighteenth century the former had the stronger foot- 
hold in the peninsula, just as previous to the French and Indian 
War in the New World they had the stronger hold upon the North 
American continent. 

A terrible crime committed by the Nabob Surajah Dowlah of 
Bengal, a province lying along the lower courses of the Ganges, 
determined the fate not only of that native state, but of all India. 
Moved by jealousy of the growing power of the Enghsh, and en- 
couraged by the French, the Nabob attacked and captured the 
English post at Calcutta. His one hundred and forty-six prisoners 
he crowded into a close dungeon, cafled the Black Hole. In the 
course of a sultry night the larger part of the unfortunate prisoners 
were suffocated. 



THE AFGHAN WAR OF 1 838-1842. 725 

The crime was avenged by Robert Clive, the EngUsh com- 
mander at Madras. With only 100 EngHsh soldiers and 2000 
sepoys (native soldiers in European employ), he sailed for Cal- 
cutta, recaptured that place, and on the memorable field of Plassey, 
scattered to the winds the Nabob's army of 60,000 (1757). 

The victory of Plassey estabHshed upon a firm basis the growing 
power of the Company. During the next one hundred years 'it 
extended its authority throughout almost every part of the penin- 
sula. Many of the native princes were, and still are, allowed to 
retain their ihrones, only they must now acknowledge the suze- 
rainty or paramount authority of the English government. 

We will now speak briefly of the most important wars and 
troubles in which England has been involved through her interests 
in India. 

The Afghan War of 1838-1842. — One of the first serious wars 
into which England was drawn through her jealousy of Russia was 
what was known as the Afghan War. It was England's policy to 
maintain the Afghan state as a barrier between her East India 
possessions and Russia. Persuaded that the ruler of the Afghans, 
a usurper named Dost Mahommed, was inclined to a Russian alli- 
ance, the English determined to dethrone him, and put in his 
place the legitimate prince. This was done. The Afghans, how- 
ever, resented this interference in their affairs. They arose in 
revolt, and forced the English army to retreat from the country. 
In the wild mountain passes leading from Afghanistan into India, 
the fleeing army, 16,000 in number, counting camp-followers, was 
cut ofl" almost to a man. The English took signal vengeance. 
They again invaded the country, defeated the Afghaas, punished 
some of their leaders, burned the chief bazaar of Cabul, and then 
withdrawing from the country, left the Afghans to themselves. 

Opium War with China (i 840-1 842). — The next war incited 
by British interest in India was the so-called Opium War with 
China. 

During the first half of the present century the opium traffic 
between India and China grew into gigantic proportions, and be- 



726 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

came an important source of wealth to the British merchants, and 
of revenue to the Indian government. The Chinese government, 
however, awake to the enormous evils of the growing use of the 
narcotic, forbade the importation of the drug ; but the British 
merchants, notwithstanding the imperial prohibition, persisted in 
the trade, and succeeded in smuggling large quantities of the arti- 
cle into the Chinese market. Finally, the government seized and 
destroyed all the opium stored in the warehouses of the British 
traders at Canton. This act. together with other " outrages," led 
to a declaration of war on the part of England. British troops 
now took possession of Canton, and the Chinese government, 
whose troops were as helpless as children before European soldiers, 
was soon forced to agree to the treaty of Nanking, by which the 
island of Hong-Kong was ceded to the English, several important 
ports were opened to British traders, and the perpetuation of the 
nefarious traffic in opium was secured. 

The Crimean War ( 1 854-1 85 6). — Scarcely was the Opium 
War ended before England was involved in a gigantic struggle with 
Russia, — the Crimean War, already spoken of in connection with 
Russian history (see p. 694). From our present standpoint we 
can better understand why England threw herself into the conflict 
on the side of Turkey. She fought to maintain the integrity of the 
Ottoman Empire, in order that her own great rival, Russia, might 
be prevented from seizing Constantinople and the Bosporus, and 
from that point controlKng the affairs of Asia through the command 
of the Eastern Mediterranean. 

The Sepoy Mutiny (185 7-1 85 8). — The echoes of the Crimean 
War had barely died away before England was startled by the 
most alarming intelligence from the country for the secure posses- 
sion of which English soldiers had borne their part in the fierce 
struggle before Sebastopol. 

In 1857 there broke out in the armies of the East India Com- 
pany what is known as the Sepoy Mutiny. The causes of the 
uprising were various. The crowd of deposed princes was one ele- 
ment of discontent. A widespread conviction among the natives, 



LATER EVENTS. 727 

awakened by different acts of the English, that their religion was 
in danger, was another of the causes that led to the rebellion. 
There were also military grievances of which the native soldiers 
complained. 

The mutiny broke out at Bengal. At different points, by pre- 
concerted signals, the native regiments arose against their English 
officers and put them to death.^ Delhi and Cawnpore were seized, 
and the English residents and garrisons butchered in cold blood. 
Fortunately many of the native regiments stood firm in their 
allegiance to the English, and with their aid the revolt was speed- 
ily quelled. 

At the close of the war, the government of India, by act of Par- 
liament, was taken out of the hands of the East India Company 
and vested in the English crown. Since this transfer, the Indian 
government has been conducted on the principle that " English 
rule in India should be for India. "^ 

Later events : The English in Egypt. — It only remains for us 
to refer to some later matters which are more or less intimately 
connected with England's Eastern policy. 

In 1874 Mr. Disraeh, who had then just succeeded Mr. Gladstone 
as prime minister, purchased, for ;2^200, 000,000, the 1 76,000 shares 
which the Khedive of Egypt held in the Suez Canal. This was to 
give England more perfect control of this all-important gateway to 
her East India possessions. 

^ The East India Company at this time had an army of nearly 300,000, of 
which number not more than 45,000 were English troops. The chief positions 
in the native regiments were held by English officers. 

^ Within the last two or three decades the country has undergone in every 
respect a surprising transformation. Life and property are now as secure in 
India as in England, The railways begun by the East India Company have 
been extended in every direction, and now bind together the most distant 
provinces of the empire. All the chief cities are united by telegraph. Lines 
of steamers are established on the Indus and the Ganges. Public schools have 
been opened, and colleges founded. Several hundred newspapers, about half 
published in the native dialects, are sowing Western ideas broadcast among the 
people. The introduction of European science and civilization is rapidly un- 
dermining many of the old superstitions, particularly the ancient system of caste. 



728 ENGLAND SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

In 1878, towards the close of the Russo-Turkish War, England, 
it will be recalled, interfered in behalf of the Turks, and, by the 
presence of her iron-clads in the Bosporus, prevented the Russians 
from occupying Constantinople. In the treaty negotiations which 
followed, England received from Turkey the island of Cyprus. 

In the year 1882 political and financial reasons combined led 
the English government, now conducted by Gladstone, to interfere 
in the affairs of Egypt. A mutinous uprising against the authority 
of the Khedive having taken place in the Egyptian army, an ex- 
pedition was sent out under the command of Lord Wolseley for 
the purpose of suppressing the revolt, and by the restoration of the 
authority of the Khedive to render secure the Suez Canal, and pro- 
tect the interest of English bondholders in Egyptian securities. 

Three years later, in 1885, a second expedition had to be sent 
out to the same country. The Soudanese, subjects of the Khe- 
dive, encouraged by the disorganized condition of the Egyptian 
government, had revolted, and were threatening the Egyptian gar- 
risons in the Soudan with destruction. Lord Wolseley was sent 
out a second time, to lead an expedition up the Nile to the relief 
of Khartoum, where General Gordon, a representative of the 
English government, was commanding the Egyptian troops, and 
trying — to use his own phrase — to " smash the Mahdi," the mil- 
itary prophet and leader of the Soudanese Arabs. 

The expedition arrived too late, Khartoum having fallen just 
before the advance relief party reached the town. The English 
troops were now recalled, and the greater part of the Soudan aban- 
doned to the rebel Arabs. Further complications seem likely to 
grow out of England's presence in Egypt. 



THE AGE OF MATERIAL PROGRESS. 729 



CONCLUSION: THE NEW AGE. 



The Age of Material Progress, or the Industrial Age. — His- 
tory has been well likened to a grand dissolving view. While one 
age is passing away another is coming into prominence. 

During the last fifty years the distinctive features of society have 
wholly changed. The battles now being waged in the religious 
and the political world are only faint echoes of the great battles of 
the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. A new 
movement of human society has begun. Civihzation has entered 
upon what may be called the Industrial Age, or the Age of Ma- 
terial Progress. 

The decade between 1830 and 1840 was, in the phrase of 
Herzog, '' the cradle of the new epoch." In that decade several 
of the greatest inventions that have marked human progress were 
first brought to practical perfection. Prominent among these 
were ocean steam navigation, railroads, and telegraphs.^ In the 
year 1830 Stephenson exhibited the first really successful locomo- 
tive. In 1836 Morse perfected the telegraph. In 1838 ocean 
steamship navigation was first practically solved. 

The rapidity with which these inventions have been introduced 
into almost all parts of the world, partakes of the marvellous. 

During the last fifty years the continents have been covered with 
a perfect network of railroads, constructed at an enormous cost 
of labor and capital. The aggregate length of the world's steam 
railways in 1883 was about 275,000 miles, sufficient, to use Mul- 

1 Ploetz in his Epitome of History, instructively compares these inventions 
to the three great inventions or discoveries — the magnetic needle, gunpowder, 
and printing — that ushered in the Modern Age. 



730 CONCLUSION. 

hall's illustration, to girdle the earth eleven times at the equator, 
or more than sufficient to reach from the earth to the moon. The 
continental lines of railways are made virtually continuous round 
the world by connecting lines of ocean steamers. Telegraph wires 
traverse the continents in all directions, and cables run beneath 
all the oceans of the globe. 

By these inventions the most remote parts of the earth have 
been brought near together. A solidarity of commercial interests 
has been created. Thought has been made virtually omnipresent : 
a new and helpful idea or discovery becomes immediately the com- 
mon possession of the world. Facilities for travel, by bringing 
men together, and familiarizing them with new scenes and dif- 
ferent forms of society and behef, have made them more liberal and 
tolerant. Mind has been broadened and quickened. And by the 
virtual annihilation of time and space, governmental problems 
have been solved. The chief difficulties in maintaining a con- 
federation of states widely separated have been removed, and 
such extended territories as those of the United States made prac- 
tically as compact as the most closely consohdated European 
state. England, with her scattered colonies, may now. Professor 
Seeley thinks, well enough become a World- Venice, with the 
oceans for streets. Furthermore, the steps of human progress 
have been accelerated a hundred-fold. The work of years, and of 
centuries even, is crowded into a day. Thus Japan, on the out- 
skirts of the world, has been modified more by our civilization 
within the last decade or two, than Britain was modified by the 
civilization of Rome during the four hundred years that the island 
was connected with the empire. 

But a still more important feature of the new epoch is the use 
of steam engines, electric motors, and machinery in the manufac- 
tures and the various other industries of mankind. At the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century the great manufactures of the 
world were in their infancy. Under the impulse of modern in- 
ventions they have been carried to seeming perfection at a bound. 
New motors and improved machinery have increased incalculably 



THE AGE OF MATERIAL PROGRESS. 731 

the productive forces of society. This enormous augmentation 
of the power of production is one of the most significant features of 
the age. 

The history of this wonderful age, so different from any preced- 
ing age, cannot yet be written, for no one can tell whether the 
epoch is just opening or is already well advanced. It may well be 
that we have already seen the greatest surprises of the age, and 
that the epoch is nearing its culmination,^ and that other than 
material development — let us hope intellectual and moral devel- 
opment — will characterize future epochs. 

1 " It is probable," says Professor Ely, " that as we, after more than two 
thousand years, look back upon the time of Pericles with wonder and aston- 
ishment, as an epoch great in art and literature, posterity two thousand years 
hence will regard our era as forming an admirable and unparalleled epoch in 
the history of industrial invention." — French and German Socialism in Mod- 
em Times, 



-^ 



INDEX, PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY, AND 

GLOSSARY. 

Note. — In the case of words whose correct pronunciation has not-seemed 
to be clearly indicated by their accentuation and syllabication, the sounds of 
the letters have been denoted thus : a, like a in gray ; a like a, only less pro- 
longed; a, like a in have ; a, like a vixfar; e, like ee vtxfeet ; e, like e in end; 
■e and -ch, like k; q, like s; g, likey; 6 like o in for; s, like z. 



Aachen (a'ken), 408. 

Ab-bas', 400. 

Abbassides (ab-bas'idz), house of, 400. 

Abd'er-rah'man, 399. 

Abubekr (a'boo-bek'r), first caliph, 

395- 
Abukir (a-boo-keer'), battle of, 670. 

Absalom, son of David, 65. 

Academy, the, at Athens, 207. 

Ac'cad, 41, 45. 

Accadians, civilization of, 41. 

A-eh9e'ans, the, 90, 91, 97. 

A-ehae'an League, 175. 

Aehaia (a-ka'ya), the name, 97. 

A-ehil'les, 95, 106, n. 

Acre (a'ker), siege of, by crusaders, 

445- 
A-crop'o-lis, Athenian, 180. 

Ac'ti-um, battle of, 304. 

Addison, Joseph, 629. 

A-dol'phus, Gus-ta'vus, k. of Sweden, 

583, 585- 
Ad'o-ni'jah, 65. 

Ad'ri-an-o'ple, peace of, 693. 

y^-ga'tian Islands, naval battle near, 

in First Punic War, 253. 
^-ge'an Sea, 88, 89. 
iE-gi'na, 220. 
iE-gis'thus, 96. 
yE'gos-pot'a-mi, capture of Athenian 

fleet at, 154. 
^'mil-i-a'nus, Scipio, 271, 272. 
JE-ne'siS, 96. 
^-o'li-ans, the, 236; migration to 

Asia Minor, 97, 



yE'o-lus, 103. 

^E'qui-ans, the, 236. 

yEs'-ehi-nes, 199, 200. 

^s'-ehy-lus, 193, 194. 

A-e'ti-us, Roman general, 345. 

/E-to'li-an League, 175. 

Africa, circumnavigation of, in reign 
of Necho II., 26. 

Africa (North), conquest of, by the 
Arabs, 397. _ 

Agade (ag-a-da'), 42. 

Ag'a-mem'non, 92, 95. 

Agincourt(a'zhan-koor'), battle of, 486. 

Ag'o-ra, the, 98. 

Agrarian troubles at Rome, 274-277. 

A-gric'o-la, 314, 315. 

Ag'rip-pi'na, 312. 

Ah'mes. See Ajnosis. 

Ah'ri-man, 83, 84. 

Ahura Mazda. See Ormazd. 

Aix-la-Chapelle (aks-la-sha'pel'), 
treaty of, 593; peace of, 645. 

A'jax, 95. 

Al''a-ric, his first invasion of Italy, 339; 
sacks Rome, 342; his death, 343. 

Alba Longa, 223. 

Albertus Magnus, 471. 

Al'bi-gen'ses, 493, 494. 

Al'ci-bi'a-des, leader at Athens, 151, 
152, 153, 154; as a pupil of Soc- 
rates, 206, 207. 

Al-e'm8e-on'i-dae, first banishment from 
Athens, 120; second banishment, 
122; contract to rebuild the Del- 
phian temple, 122, 123. 



734 



INDEX. 



Al'e-man'ni, the, 336. 

Alexander I., czar, 678; II., 696-699; 
his assassination, 699; III., 699. 

Alexander the Great, 161-167; divis- 
ion of the Empire of, 1 70. 

Alexandria, in Egypt, founding of, 163. 

Alexandrian Age in Greek Literature, 
201, 202. 

Museum and Library, 173, 201; 
library destroyed by the Sara- 
cens, 397. 

Alexius Com-ne'nus I., Greek emp., 
440. 

Alfred the Great, k. of England, 412. 

Al-giers', 533, n. 

Ali (a'lee), caliph, 395, 399, 

Al'lah, 395. 

Al'h-a, battle of, 239, 240. 

Allodial Lands. — Lands held in one's 
own right, without being subject 
to any rent or service to a superior. 
See p. 424. 

Alphabet, origin of, 72; spread of, 72. 

Alsace (al'sass'), ceded to the Ger- 

.. man Empire, 691. 

Al'va, d. of, 565, 566. 

A-ma'sis, k. of Egypt, i^i, 1 1O5 n. 

Am'a-zons, 186. 

Amboise (onb'waz'), conspiracy of, 

574; 

America, discovery of, by Columbus, 

513. 514- 

American colonies (English), separa- 
tion from England, 632. 

Amerigo Vespucci (a-ma-ree'go ves- 
poot'chee), 468, n. 

Amiens (am'i-enz; Fr. a'me'on'), 
peace of, 674. 

Am'mon, oasis of, 77. 
Zeus, 163. 

A-mo'sis, 21. 

Am-phic'ty-on-y, the Delphian, 108, 
160. 

Amphitheatre, Flavian. See Colos- 
seum. 

Amrou (am'roo), 397. 

Am'u-noph III., 22. 

Am'u-rath I., 462. 

Am'y-tis, 62. 

A-na'cre-on, 192. 

An'ax-ag'o-ras, 205. 

A-nax'i-man'der, 203. 



An'ax-im'e-nes, 203. 

An-ehi'ses, 96. 

An'cus Mar'ti-us, 225. 

Anglo-Saxons, enter Britain, 344; 
their conquest of, 375; their con- 
version, 378-381. 

An-go'ra, battle of, 462. 

Angro-Mainyus. See Ahriman. 

Anne of Austria, regent, 591. 

Anne, q. of England, reign, 628, 629. 

Annus Mirabilis, 620. 

Anthony, k. of Navarre, 573. 

Antioch, 171 ; captured by the cru- 
saders, 442. 

An-ti'o-chus III., the Great, 171, 172, 
268. 

An-tip'a-ter, 174. 

Antiquity of Man, I. 

An'to-ni'nus Pius, Roman emp., 321. 

Antony, Mark, his oration at Caesar's 
funeral, 299, 300; enters second 
triumvirate, 301; usurpations of, 
301; revels with Cleopatra, 303; 
flees from Actium, 304; his death, 

304- 
Ant'werp, 567. 
A-pel'les, 189. 
Ap'en-nines, 222. 
Aph'ro-di'te, 102; statue of, at Cni'- 

dus, 186. 
A'pis, 29. 

A-poc'ry-pha, the, 69. 
A-pol'lo, 102; oracles of, 104, 106. 
Ap'pi-us Clau'di-us Cse'cus, 245. 
Ap'pi-us Clau'di-us, the decemvir, 

237' 238. 

Appeals, Statute of, 546. 

A-pu'li-a, 222. 

A'quae Sex'ti-ae, battle of, 279. 

Aqueduct, Claudian, 311. 

Aqueducts, Roman, 352. 

A-qui'nas, Thomas, 471. 

Arabia, 392. 

Arabs, character of, 392; religious 
condition before Mohammed, 392; 
spread of their religion and lan- 
guage, 401. 

Ar'a-gon, 498. 

Ar-be'la, battle of, 163, 164. 

Ar-ca'di-a, 87, 97. 

Ar-ca'di-us, Eastern Roman emp., 
338. 



INDEX. 



735 



Arch of Constantine, 353. 

Titus, 314. 
Ar'-ehi-me'des, 213, 263. 
Architecture, Assyrian, 55, 56. 
Babylonian, 61, 62. 
-Ghaldaean, 43, 44. 
Grecian, 176-182, 
Pelasgian, 176, 177. 
Persian, 84-86. 
Roman, 350-353. 
Architecture, Greek orders of, 177. 
Archons, the, 119. 
A're-op'a-gus, court of the, 121. 
A'res, 102. 
Ar'go-Hs, 87, 117. 
Argonauts, the, 94. 
Argos, 130, 
A'ri-an-ism, 332. 
Ar-is-tar'-ehus, 213. 
Ar'is-ti'des, the Just, his ostracism, 

129; leader at Athens, 137, 138. 
Ar'is-toph'a-nes, 195, 196. 
Ar'is-tot'le, 208-210, 
Ar-ma'da, Invincible, 558-560, 
Ar-min'i-us, 308. 

Army, standing, of England, begin- 
. ning of, 619; increased by James 

II,, 622, 
A-rig'i-a, 244. 
Ar'ri-dae'us, Philip, 170, n, 
Ar'ta-pher'nes, Persian general, 126, 
Artaxerxes (ar'tax-erx'es) II., k. of 

Persia, 81, 
Ar'te-mis, 102. 
Ar'te-mis'i-a, 182, 
Artois (ar'twa'), 591. 
Ar-ver'ni, 292, 

Aryans, migrations of, 4, 5 ; early cul- 
ture of, 5, 6; importance of Aryan 

studies, 6; enter India, 8. 
As-pa'si-a, 217. 
Asshur, emblem of, 53. 
As'shur-ban'i-pal, 50, 51. 
Assyria, political history of, 48-51. 
Assyrian Literature, 57. 
Assyrians, religion, arts, and general 

culture of, 52-57; character of, 53; 

their palaces and temples, 55. 
Astrology among the Chaldaeans, 45. 
As-ty'a-ges, king of the Medes, 74. 
A-the'na, 102; colossal statue of, by 

Phidias, 185. 



Athenian constitution, reformed by 
Solon, 120; by Clisthenes, 123. 

Athenian Empire, basis of, 138; 
strength and weakness, 145, 146. 

Athenian supremacy, period of, 136- 
146. 

Athenians, mixed origin of, 117, 

Athens, early history of, 1 1 7- 1 24; 
site of, 118; kings of, 118, 119; 
burned by Persians, 133, 134; re- 
building of, 136; Long Walls of, 
142; pestilence at, 148, 149; con- 
dition at end of Peloponnesian War, 
155; social life at, 219, 220; pop- 
ulation of, 220, n. 

A'thos, Mount, 130; wreck of Per- 
sian fleet near, 80, 

Attica, population of, 117, 220, n, 

At'ti-la, 345, 346. 

Auerstadt (ow'er-stet'), battle of, 678. 

Augurs, college of, at Rome, 230, 

Augs'burg, Religious Peace of, 533; 
League of,_ 595, 

Augustine, his mission to the Angles 
and Saxons, 378, 

Augustus, Caesar, reign of, 305-309. 

Augustus the Strong, k, of Poland, 

637- 

Au-gus'tu-lus. See Romtdus Augus- 
tus. 

Au-re'li-an, Roman emp., 329. 

Au-re'li-us, Marcus, Roman emp., 

321-323- 
Aus'ter-litz, battle of, 677. 
Austria, house of, 507. 
Austrian Succession, War of the, 644, 

645- 
Austro-Sardinian War, 711, 712. 
Aventine, 227. 
Avignon (a'ven'yon'), removal of 

papal chair to, 457. 
Az'of, conquest of, by Peter the 

Great, 634. 

Babel, tower of, 46. 

Babylon, taken by Cyrus, 60, 68; 

great edifices of, 61, 62. 
Babylonia, the name, 43, 
Babylonian history, 58-60; temples 

and palaces, 61, 62, 
Bacchus, See Dionysus. 
Bacon, Sir Francis, 562, n., 605. 



736 



INDEX, 



Bacon, Roger, 471. 

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 555. 

Bactria, conquest of, by Alexander, 
164, 165. 

Bagdad, founded, 400, 

Bailly (ba'li), French statesman, 652. 

Baj'a-zet, 462. 

Balaklava (bal'a-kla'va), 695. 

Baldwin, count of Flanders, 446. 

Bal'e-ar'ic Islands, 247. 

Balliol, John, k. of Scotland, 482. 

Ban'nock-burn', battle of, 483. 

Barbadoes (bar-ba'doz), 614. 

Bar'ba-ros'sa, Algerian pirate, 532, n. 

Barrack emperors, the, 325. 

Basques (basks), 3, 405, 

Bastile (bas-teel'), storming of the, 
652. 

Batavian Republic, 674, 676, n. 

Bat'tues, 665. 

Bautzen (bowt'sen), battle of, 685. 

Bayard (ba'ard). Chevalier, 532. 

Be'his-tun' Rock, 79. 

Belgium, kingdom of, 568, n.; revo- 
lution in, 689, n. 

Bel'i-sa'ri-us, 372, 389. 

Bel-shaz'zar, 60. 

Beluchistan (bel-loo'chis-tan'), 166. 

Benedictines, order of the, 383, 

Ben'e-ven'tum, battle of, 246. 

Benevolences, 541; resorted to, by 
Charles L, 606. 

Beresina, the, 684. 

Berg'en, 469. 

Bergerac (ber-zheh-rak'), peace of, 

575. n. 
Ber'lin decree, 679. 
Ber'lin, treaty of (1878), 697, 698. 
Bes-sa-ra'bi-a, 698. 
Bes'ti-a, Roman consul, 277. 
Bias, 203, n. 

Bismarck, Otto Von, 703. 
Bi-thyn'i-a, 442. 
Black Death, 485, n., 486, n. 
Black Prince, 485. 
Blenheim (blen'im), battle of, 597. 
Bloody Assizes, 622. 
Bliicher (bloo'ker), 687. 
Boccaccio (bokkat'cho), 474. 
Bce-o'ti-a, 87. 
Boeotian League, 148. 
Bo'i-i, Gallic tribe, 255. 



Boleyn (bool'in), Anne, 544, 546, 549. 

Bonaparte, Jerome, 679. 

Bonaparte, Louis, 676, n. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, defends the 
convention, 666; his Italian cam- 
paigns, 668; in Egypt, 669; in 
Syria, 670; overthrows the Direc- 
tory, 671; First Consul, 673-675; 
proclaimed emperor, 675 ; his wars, 
676-685 ; his second marriage, 681 ; 
at the summit of his power, 681, 
682; first abdication, 685; second 
abdication, 688; his death, 688. 

Bordeaux (bor-do'), 665. 

Borodino (bor-o-dee'no), battle of,683. 

Bor-sip'pa, temple of the Seven 
Spheres at, 61. 

Bos'ni-a, 698. 

Bos'pho-rus, 79. 

Bosworth Field, battle of, 488. 

Boulak (boo-lak') Museum, 39. 

Boulogne (boo-lon'), 677. 

Bourbon, Constable of, 531. 

Bourbon, house of, in Huguenot 
Wars, 573, 574, 575, 578; Henry 
IV., k. of France, 578, 579. For 
other kings of this house, see Louis^ 

Boyne (boin), battle of the, 627. 

Braddock, General, 631. 

Bradshaw, John, 613. 

Brahma, 10. 

Brahmanism, 9-1 1 ; modified by 
Buddhism, 12. 

Brahmans, 8. 

Brandenburg, 587; mark of, 642. 

Bras'i-das, Spartan general, 150. 

Bren'nus, 241. 

Bretigny, treaty of, 486, n. 

Britain, invaded by Caesar, 292; con- 
quest of, by Claudius, 31 1; the 
Hadrian Wall, 320. 

Bruce, Robert, k. of Scotland, 483. 

Bru'geg, 469. 

Bru-maire', 671. 

Brun-di'si-um, 295. 

Brun-du'si-um, 447. 

Brunswick, house of. See Hanover. 

Bru'ti-um, 222. 

Brutus, L. Junius, 232. 

Brutus, the liberator, 299, 300, 302, 

303. 
Bu-ceph'a-la, 165. 



INDEX, 



737 



Buddha (bood'ha), ii. 

Buddhism, ii, 12; introduced into 

China, 17. 
Bunyan, John, 617, 618. 
Burgundians, conversion of, 378. 
Burleigh (biir'H), Lord. See Cecil. 
Bu'sen-ti'nus, river, 344. 
Butler, Samuel, 625. 
Byron, Lord, 693, n. 
By-zan'ti-um, 332, y^2,. 

Caaba (ka'bah), 392, 393. 

Cabot (kab'ot), John, 542; Sebastian, 

542. 

Cad'mus, 92. 

Caesar, Julius, proscribed by Sulla, 
283, 284; early life, 291; forms 
the First Triumvirate, 291; his 
Commentaries, 292; his campaigns 
in Gaul and Britain, 292, 293; civil 
war with Pompey, 293-296; defeats 
Pharnaces, 296; his triumph, 297; 
his genius as a statesman, 297, 298; 
his death, 298, 299. 

Cse-sa'ri-on, 304. 

Cai'ro, 32, 401. 

Caius (ka'yus), grandson of Augustus, 
308. 

Caius Caesar. See Caligula. 

Ca-la'bri-a, 222. 

Calais (kal'iss), captured by the Eng- 
lish, 485; lost, 553. 

Caledonians, the, 315, 

Calendar, origin of, in Egypt, 36; 
reformed by Caesar, 298. 

Ca-lig'u-la, Roman emp., 310, 311. 

Caliphate, the, changes in, 399; golden 
age of, 400; dismembered, 400. 

Cal-lim'a-chus, 177. 

Cal'mar, union of, 512. 

Calonne (ka'lon'), 650. 

Calvin, John, 525, 526 and n. 

Cambunian Mountains, 87. 

Cam-by'ses, k. of Persia, 77. 

Ca-mil'lus, dictator, 239, 241. 

Cam-pa'ni-a, 222. 

Campeggio (kam-ped'jo), 545. 

Cam'po Formio, treaty of, 668. 

Campus Mar'ti-us, 227. 

Can'nae, battle of, 261. 

Canossa (ka-nos'sa), 454. 

Canute (ka-nut'), 412. 



Cape Breton (brit'un) Island, 542, 

Capetians. See France. Capetian 
kings, 491, n. 

Cap'i-tol-ine Hill, 226; temple, 227. 

Ca'pre-ae, island of, 309, 310. 

Cap'u-a, opens its gates to the Car- 
thaginians, 262; destroyed by the 
Romans, 263. 

Car'a-cal'la, Roman emp., 326, 327. 

Ca-rac'ta-cus, 311. 

Car'bo-na'ri, 709. 

Ca'ri-a, 268. 

Carl'stadt, 524. 

Car-ma'ni-a, 166. 

Car-o-lin'gi-an family, beginning of, 
404; extinction of, 409. 

Carthage, 247; empire of, 247; gov- 
ernment of, 247; compared with 
Rome, 248; destroyed by the Ro- 
mans, 271; rebuilt by Caesar, 297. 

Carthage, New, in Spain, 257, 259. 

Carthaginian Empire, 247; govern- 
ment and religion, 247. See Punic 
Wars. 

Ca'rus, Roman emp., 329. 

Cas-san'der, 170, 171. 

Cas'si-us, the liberator, 299, 300, 302, 

303- 
Castes among Hindus, origin of, 89, n. 
Castile (kas-teel'), union with Aragon, 

498. 
Catacombs, Roman, 331. 
Cateau-Cambresis (ka'to'kon'bra'ze'), 

treaty of, 536. 
Cathay (kath-a'), 13. 
Cathedral-building, 505. 
Catherine (the Great) of Russia, 639- 

641. 
Catholic Emancipation Act, 722. 
Cat'i-line, conspiracy of, 289, 290. 
Cato, the Censor, 270, 
Ca-tul'lus, 354. 

Cat'u-lus, Roman consul, 253. 
Caucasian Race, 2, 3. 
Cau'ca-sus, 71. 

Cavaliers, in English civil war, 610. 
Cavour (ka'voor'). Count, 711. 
Cawn-pore', 727. 
Ca-ys'ter, river, 75. 
Cecil (ses'il), Robert, 555. 
Cecil, Sir William (Lord Burleigh), 

555- 



738 



INDEX. 



Ce-cfo'pi-a, 92. 

Ce'crops, 92. 

Celts, the, 4, 7, 369; Christianity 

among, 379-381. 
Cel'ti-be'ri-ans, the, 272. 
Cen'o-bites, 383. 
Censors, the Roman, 238. 
(^en'taurs, 104. 
^er'be-rus, 104. 

■€h8er'o-ne'a, battle of, 160, 161. 
-Ghal-gid'i-^i, 160, 

•Chaldaea, political history of, 40-43. 
-Ghaldaean literature, 44-47 ; religion, 

45, 46; mythology, 46. 
-Ghaldseans, mixed character of, 41 ; 

arts, religion, and general culture 

of, 43-47- 

Chalons (sha'lon'), battle of, 345. 

ChampoUion (sham-pol'le-on), 36. 

Chantry, — " An endowed chapel 
where one or more priests daily 
sing or say mass for the souls of 
the donors, or such as they ap- 
point." — Webster. 

Charlemagne (shar'le-man), reign, 
403-408; restores the Empire in 
the West, 406; his death, 408. 

Charles, archd. of Austria, 596, 597. 

Charles the Bold, d. of Burgundy, 495. 

Charles I., k. of England, reign, 
606-612; his execution, 612; II., 
reign, 618-621. 

Charles VII., k. of France, 486, 487; 
VIII., 495, 496; IX., 574, 575, 576, 

577- 
Charles V., emp. H. R. E., reign, 

530-534; his cloister Hfe, 534, 535 ; 

VI., 644, 645. 
Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, 573. 
Charles Martel, 399, 403. 
Charles IL, k. of Spain, 596. 
Charles the Simple, of France, 413. 
Chartism, 718. 
•€ha-ryb'dis, 104. 
Chastenoy, peace of, 575, n. 
Chaucer (chaw'ser), Geoffrey, 490. 
•Ghed-or-la'o-mer, 43. 
Che Hwang-te, 13. 
■Ghe'ops. See Kufu. 
Cheviot (chiv'e-ut), Hills, 543, n. 
"Chi'lo, 203, n. 
Chil'per-ic, 404. 



China, ancient history of, 12-17; 
Great Wall of, 13; religions in, 16; 
ancestor worship in, 17. 

Chinese Writing, 14; literature, 14- 
16; great wall, 13, n.; morality, 
16; competitive examinations, 16. 

Chi'os, 88. 

Chivalry, defined, 429; origin, 429; 
training of the knight, 430; cere- 
monies of knighting, 430; the tour- 
nament, 431; decline of, 431; in- 
fluence of, 432. 

-Ghos'ro-es, k. of Persia, 390. 

Christ, birth of, 308; crucifixion of, 
310. 

Christian IV., k. of Denmark, 583. 

Christianity, causes of rapid spread 
of, in the Roman E., 310; early 
spread of, 319, 320; under Con- 
stantine, 332, 333; under Julian 
the Apostate, 334, 335; under Jo- 
vian, 335; conversion to, of the 
Goths, 336; influence of, upon 
gladiatorial combats, 340; rapid 
progress of, 343 ; introduced among 
the Teutonic tribes, 377-384; abol- 
ished, during French Revolution, 
661, 662; restored, 666. 

Christians, persecutions of, under 
Nero, 312, 313; under Domitian, 
317; under Trajan, 319; under 
Aurelius, 322; under Diocletian, 

330, Zl^- 

Churchill, John. See Marlborough. 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, prosecutes 
Verres, 287; oration against Cati- 
line, 290; death of, 302. 

(^id, poem of the, 501. 

Ci-Uc'i-a, 287, 288. 

Cim'bri, the, 278, 279. 

^i'mon, Athenian statesman, 139, 140. 

Cin'cin-na'tus, 236. 

Cinderella, romance of, 36. 

Cin'na, 291. 

Cir-ce'i-i (-se'yi), 281. 

Circensian Games, 231. 

Cir'cus Max'i-mus, 227, 350, 352. 

Cirrha, 108. 

Cis'al-pi'na, Gal'H-a, 222. 

Cis-al'pine Republic, proclaimed, 668; 
changed into kingdom of Italy, 
676, n. 



INDEX. 



739 



City, the, Greek idea of, 92. 

Civilization, three elements of, 368. 

Claudius, Roman consul, 251, 252. 

Claudius, Roman emp., 311, 312. 

Cle'o-bu'lus, 203, n. 

Cle'on, Athenian demagogue, 149, 
150. 

Cle'o-pa'tra, 303,304. 

Clermont (kler'mon), council of, 440. 

Cleves, Anne of, 549. 

Cli'ents, in Rome, 225. 

Clis'the-nes, reforms of, 123. 

Cli'tus, 165. 

Clive, Robert, 725. 

Clo-a'ca Max'i-ma, 226. 

Clo'vis, 374; his conversion, 378. 

Clyt'em-nes'tra, 96. 

Cnidus (sid'nus), 186. 

Code Napoleon, 675. 

Co'drus, k. of Athens, 118, 119. 

Coe'le-Syria, 288. 

Colbert (kol'ber'), 592. 

Colchis (kol'kis), 71. 

Colet (kol'et), 540. 

Coligny (ko'len'ye'), Gaspard de, ad- 
miral of France, 573, 574, 576. 

Col'la-ti'nus, Tar-quin'i-us, 232. 

Colonies, Greek, no, 11 1; Roman 
and Latin, 246, n. 

Col'os-se'um, the, 315, 316, 352, 

Columbus, his first voyage, 513, 514. 

Comitia (ko-mish'i-a), centuriata, 
2.2-1 \ curiata, 224, 227; tribitta, 

235. n- 

Com'mo-dus, Roman emp., 324, 325. 

Commons, English House of, origin, 
480, 481; privileges of, 603, 604. 
See Parliatnent and Reform Bill. 

Commonwealth, the English, 613-61 7. 

Confucius, 15, 16, 17. 

Conrad III., emp. H. R. E., 444. 

Con'rad-in, last of Hohenstaufen 
family, 504, n. 

Con'stance, church council of, 458. 

Constantine the Great, 332, ^'2,^^. 

Constantine VI., Eastern emp., 406. 

Constantinople, founding of, 332, '^'^y, 
besieged by the Saracens, 398; cap- 
ture of, by the crusaders, 446; the 
Latin Empire, 446. 

Con-stan'ti-us, Roman emp., 331, 332, 
334- 



Consuls, Roman, first, 232. 

Continental system of Napoleon, 679, 

Conventicle act, 619. 

Co'ra, 244. 

Cor-cy'ra, 88, 148. 

Corcyraeans, the, 147, 

Corday (kor'da'), Charlotte, 660. 

Cordeliers (kor'de-leers'), origin of, 
654; clubs closed, 666. 

Cor'do-va, 398. 

Cor-fin'i-um, 280. 

Cor'fu. See Corcyra. 

Corinth, Congress of Greeks at, 130, 
131 ; in Peloponnesian War, 147, 
148; sacked by Rome, 175; de- 
struction of, by Romans, 269. 

Co'ri-o-la'nus, legend of, 235. 

Corn, free distribution of, at Rome, 

364- 
Corneille (kor'nal'), 599. 
Cor-ne'li-a, mother of the Gracchi, 

277- 

Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, sarcopha' 
gus of, 365. 

Co-roe'bus, 106. 

Cor'pus Ju'ris Ci-vi'lis, 358; study of, 
in mediaeval age, '^%%. 

Cor'si-ca, acquired by Rome, 254. 

Cor'tez, Hernando, 516. 

Cos, 98. 

Cos-mog ra-phy of the Greeks, loi. 

Council, first, of Church, 332; of the 
North, 607 and n. 

Covenanters, the, origin of, 608; per- 
secuted under Charles II., 619. 

Cranmer, Thomas, 546, 553. 

Cras'sus, the triumvir, 290, 291; war 
with Parthia, 293; his death, 293. 

Cre'cy (kres'se), battle of, 484. 

Crete, 89, 99. 

Cri-me'a, conquered by Catherine the 
Great of Russia, 640. 

Crimean War, 694-696, 726. 

-Gris'sa, 108. 

Croe'sus, k. of Lydia, 75, 76. 

Cromwell, Oliver, his " Ironsides," 
61 1; Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 
613; ejects the Long Parliament, 
614; as Lord Protector, 615, 616; 
his death, 616. 

Cromwell, Richard, 616. 

Cromwell, Thomas, 545, 546. 



740 



INDEX. 



Cro-to'na, ill. 

Crusades, 438-451. See Table of 

Contents. Causes of, 438; results, 

449-451. 
Cryp'ti-a, the, 115. 
Cuba, 538, n. 
Cuneiform writing, origin of, 44; key 

to, 79, n. 
Cu'ri-o Den-ta'tus, Roman consul, 

246, 296. 
Cy-ax'a-res, k. of the Medes, 74. 
Cyc'la-des, the, 88. 
Cy'clops, the, 104, 176. 
Cydnus (sid'nus), the, 303. 
Cy'lon, rebellion of, 119, 120. 
Cyn'ics, the, 210. 
(^yn'os-ceph'a-lse, battle of, 267. 
(^y-re'ne, 1 11. 

Cyrus the Great, k. of Persia, 74-77. 
(^yrus the Younger, 156. 
Cythera (si-thee'ra), 88, 89. 
Czar (zar), the name, 637, n. 

Da'ci-a, conquered by Trajan, 320. 
Danes, in England, 411, 412. 
Dante (dan'te), 474. 
Dan'ton, 655; urges the massacre of 

the royalists, 656; member of the 

committee of public safety, 659; 

his fall, 663. 
Dark Ages, 366; history of, 371. 
Darius I., k. of Persia, 78-80; reforms 

of, in government, 82; III., 82. 
Da'tis, Persian general, 126. 
David, k. of the Hebrews, 64. 
De^'e-le'a, 153. 
Decelean War, 153. 
Decemvirs, first board of, 237; second, 

237. 238. 
De'ci-us, Roman emp., 328. 
Declaration of Indulgence, 622. 
Declaration of Rights, English, 624; 

Irish, 632. 
Defoe, Daniel, 629. 
Delhi (del'lee), 727. 
De'li-um, battle of, 150. 
De'los, 88; confederacy of, 137, 138; 

converted into an empire by the 

Athenians, 138, 139. 
Delphi, 87; temple at, 179; oracle 

at. See Delphian oracle. 



Delphian oracle, 105, 106; in Persian 

War, 131, 134. 
De-me'ter, 103. 
De-moc'ri-tus, 205. 
De-mos'the-nes, Athenian general, 

152. 
Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, 

160, 174, 199-201. 
Des-i-de'ri-us, k. of the Lombards, 

405- 

Di-a'na, temple of, at Ephesus, 178, 
179. 

Di Cesnola, 179, n. 

Dictator, office of, at Rome, 232, n. 

Di'o-cle'ti-an, Roman emp., 329-332, 

Di-og'e-nes, 210. 

Di'o-nys'i-us, tyrant of Syracuse, 207. 

Di'o-ny'sus, 103, 193; theatre of, at 
Athens, 182. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church, 
722, 723; proposed disestablish- 
ment of State Church in England 
and Scotland, 723. 

Disraeli (diz-ra'el-ee), 727. 

Dissenters, Protestant, civil disabili- 
ties removed from, 721. 

Divination among the Greeks, 104; 
among the Romans, 229. 

Divine Right of Kings, xioctrine of 
the, 590-601; denied in the Bill 
of Rights, 626. 

Do-do/na, oracle at, 87, 105. 

Do-mi'ti-an, Roman emp., 317. 

Don Quixote (don ke-ho'ta), 625. 

Dorians, the, 90, 91; invasion of the 
Peloponnesus, 96, 97; migrations 
to Asia Minor, 98. 

Draco, laws of, 119. 

Drag'on-nades', the, 595. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 560, 570. 

Drama, the Greek, 193-196. 

Drogheda (droh'he-da), 613. 

Dryden, John, 625. 

Du-il'li-us, C, Roman consul, 249. 

Dun-bar', battle of, 614. 

Duns Scotus, 471. 

Dutch Republic. See Netherlands. 

Dutch War, in reign of Charles II., 
620. 

East India Company, chartered by 
Elizabeth, 603. 



INDEX, 



741 



Eastern Empire, 389-391. 

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, 418. 

Ecclesiastical Reservation, the, 534. 

Eckmiihl (ek'mul), battle of, 680. 

Edda, elder, 411, n.; younger, 411, n. 

E-des'sa, 328, n., 444. 

Education among the Greeks, 2 1 5 , 2 1 6. 

Edward the Confessor, k. of England, 
412, 433. 

Edward L, k. of England, his con- 
quest of Wales, 481, 482; his wars 
with Scotland, 482; III., claims 
the French throne, 484; his wars 
with France, 484, 485; VI., reign, 

550-552. 

Egbert, k. of the West Saxons, 375. 

Egmont, 565. 

Egypt, ancient history of, 18-26; 
geology of, 18; delta of the Nile, 
18; climate of, 19; dynasties and 
chronology, 19, 20. 

Egyptians, racial affinities of, 3; an- 
cient classes of, 27; religious doc- 
trines, 27, 28; animal-worship, 28, 
29; judgment of the dead, 29-31; 
tombs, 31; pyramids, 31 ; palaces 
and temples, 32, iy, sculptures, t^t,, 
34; glass manufacture, 35; writing 
and literature, 35, 36; science, 36; 
art of embalming, 37; royal mum- 
mies, T^%, 39. 

E'lam-ites, the, 42. 

EVba, 685. 

Electors of the H. R. E., 507, n. 

Elgin (el'gin). Lord, 182, n. 

Elijah, 67. 

Elisha, 67. 

E-lys'i-an fields, loi, 

Elizabeth, q. of England, 554-562. 

Elizabeth of Russia, 646. 

Embalming, art of, 37-39. 

Em-ped'o-cles, 205. 

England. See Anglo-Saxons and 
Table of Contejits. Introduction 
of Christianity, 382; conquest of, 
by the Normans, 433-437; advan- 
tages to, of the conquest, 437; 
Plantagenet p., 479-489; wars with 
Scotland, 482, 483; the Hundred 
Years' War, 484-488; under the 
Stuarts, 60 1-630 ; since the con- 
gress of Vienna, 715-728. 



English, origin of the, 7. 

English language, growth of, 489. 

En'ni-us, 354. 

E-pam'i-non'das, 157, 158. 

Eph'e-sus, 97; temple at, 178. 

Eph'ors, 114. 

Ep'i-cu're-ans, 211. 

Ep'i-cu'rus, 211. 

Ep'ic-te'tus, 357. 

E-pi'rus, 87. 

E-ras'mus, 540. 

E'rech, 45. 

E-re'tri-a, 126. 

E-rin'nyes. See Eumenides. 

E'sar-had'don II., 51. 

Escurial, palace of, 538. 

Esquimaux, 3. 

Essex, Earl of (Elizabeth's favorite), 

561, n. 
Ethiopians, the, loi. 
E-tru'ri-a, 222, 223. 
E-trus'cans, the, 223. 
Eu-boe'a, 88. 
Eu'clid, 213. 
Eugene (yoo-jeen'), Prince of Savoy, 

597- 
Eu'me-nes, k. of Pergamus, 268. 
Eu-men'i-des, 103. 
Eu-phra'tes, valley of the, 40; turned 

by Darius I., 60, n. 
Eu-rip'i-des, 195. 
Eu-ro'tas, the, 112. 
Eylau (i'lou), battle of, 678. 
Excommunications, 453, 454. 

Fa'bi-us Maximus, the Delayer, 260, 
261. 

Fa'bi-us, Quintus, 257. 

Fa-bric'i-us, 246. 

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 611. 

Fawkes (fawks), Guy, 602. 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 498-500. 

Ferdinand, k. of Bohemia and emp. 
of H. R. E., 582, 583. 

Fet'i-^hism, 402. 

Feudalism, defined, 421; the ideal 
system, 421 ; Roman and Teutonic 
elements in, 423; ceremony of hom- 
age, 423; relation of lord and 
vassal, — escheat, forfeiture, and 
aids, 423; development of the sys- 
tem, 424; classes in the feudal 



742 



INDEX. 



state, 425; castles of the nobles, 
425; causes of its decay, 426; de- 
fects of, 427; good results of the 
system, 428. See Norjnan Con- 
quest of England. 

Finns, the, 2, 382. 

Fire, great, at Rome, 312; in London, 
620. 

Fire-worshippers, 84, n., 401, n. 

Fisher, bishop, 549. 

Flam'i-ni'nus, Roman consul, 267. 

Flavian Age, 314. 

Flavian Amphitheatre. See Colos- 
seum. 

Fleix, treaty of, 575, n. 

Flodden Field, battle of, 543, n. 

Florence, city, 467, 468. 

Fort Du Quesne (du-kan'), 631. 

Forum, Roman, 227. 

Fox, Charles James, 652. 

France. See Franks and Table of 
Contents. Under the feudal sys- 
tem, 427; beginning of kingdom, 
491; the Capetian p., 491-494; the 
Valois p., 494-498; in the Thirty 
Years' War, 581, 586, 587; ascen- 
dency of, under Louis XIV,, 590- 
599; decline under, 599, 600. 

Francis L, k. of France, his vi^ars with 
the emp. Charles v., 531, 532; per- 
secutes the Vaudois, 533. 

Francis II., k. of P'rance, 574. 

Francis, d. of Guise, 573, 574. 

Francis II., emp. H. R. E., 656, 669, 
674-677. 

Franche-Comte (fronsh kon'ta'), 594. 

Franco-Prussian War, 705. 

Franks, under the Merovingians, 373, 
374; conversion of, 378. 

Frederick Barbarossa, in third crusade, 
445; his death, 445. 

Frederick IV., k. of Denmark, 637. 

Frederick II., of Germany, 448, n. 

Frederick V., of the Palatinate, 582, n. 

Frederick William, the Great Elector, 
642. 

Frederick William I., k. of Prussia, 
643, 644; III., 653, 678; IV., 703. 

Frederick III., first k. of Prussia, 
643; II., the Great, 644-646. 

Frederickshall, siege of, 638. 

French and Indian War, 631. 



Fried'land, battle of, 678. 
Froissart (frois'sart'), 497. 
Fronde, Wars of the, 591, n. 
Ful'vi-a, wife of Antony, 302. 
Furies, the. See Eumenides. 

Ga'des, 72. 

Gal'ba, Roman emp., 313. 

Ga-la'ti-a, 174. 

Ga-le'ri-us, Roman emp,, 331, 332. 

Galileo (gal'i-lee'o), 468, n. 

Games, sacred, of the Greeks, 106, 
107; influence of, 107, 108. 

Gar-i-bal'di, 711, 713. 

Gas'cons, 405. 

Gauls, invade Macedonia, 174; settle 
in Italy, 223; sack Rome, 239-241 ; 
in Northern Italy, conquered by 
the Romans, 255; conquered by 
Caesar, 292, 293. 

Gau'ta-ma, See Buddha. 

Ga'za, 670. 

Ge-dro'si-a, 166. 

Ge'lon, k. of Syracuse, 235. 

Genesis, "Ghaldaean account of, 46. 

Genghis Khan(jen'gis kawn), 461. 

Gen'o-a, 467. 

Gen'ser-ic (Gaiseric), k. of the Van- 
dals, 346, 347,372. 

German migration, beginning of, 
278. 

Germanic tribes. See Teutons. 

Germany, introduction of Christianity, 
381; beginnings of the kingdom 
of, 501, 502; end of the kingdom 
of, 677 ; confederation of the Rhine, 
677; end of the H. R. E., 677; 
confederation of 1 81 5, 700; revo- 
lutions of 1830 and 1848, 700-702; 
the Seven Weeks' War, 703, 704; 
North-German Union, 704, 705; 
Franco-Prussian War, 705; New 
German Empire, 705-707. 

George, Prince of Denmark, 628. 

George I., k. of England, 630; II., 
630; III., 630. 

Ge'ta, Roman emp., 326. 

Ghent (gent). Pacification of, 567. 

Ghibellines (gib'el-lins), 504. 

Gi-bral'tar, ceded to England, 597. 

Gid'e-on, 63. 

Gil-bo'a, Mount, 64. 



INDEX. 



743 



Gi-ron'dists, the name, 655; party in 
'the national convention, 657; fall 
of, 659. 
Gladiatorial combats, 361-363; sup- 
pression of, 339, 340. 
Gladiators, war of the, 285, 286. 
Gladstone, prime minister, 719, 728, 
Godfrey of Bouillon (god'fri boo-yon'), 

442, 443- 
Godwin, earl of Wessex, 434. 
Golden Candlestick, 347, n. 
Go-ma'tes, 78. 
Gordon, General, 728. 
Gor'gi-as, 205. 
Gor'gons, 104. 
Goths, the, 336, 337; conversion of, 

377- 

Grac'chi, reforms of, 276, 277. 

Grac'chus, Caius, 276, 277. 
Tiberius, 276. 

Grace, edict of, 581. 

Grfeco-Persian War, 125-135. 

Gra-na'da, 398; conquest of, 499, 500. 

Grand Alliance, the, 596. 

Gra-ni'cus, battle of the, 162. 

Gra'ti-an, Roman emp., 336, 337, 338. 

Grat'tan, Henry, 632. 

Great Britain, the name, 629. See 
England. 

Great Fire in Rome, 312. 

Great Schism, the, 468. 

Great Seal of England, 624. 

Grecian architecture, 176-182. 
sculpture, 187-189. 
temples as banks of deposit, 
178' n. 

Greece, divisions of, 87; mountains 
of, 87, 88; islands about, 88; in- 
fluence of country upon inhabit- 
ants, 89. 

Greek Church, the, 417. 

Greek Empire. See Eastern Empire. 

Greek Fire, 398. 

Greeks, local patriotism of, 92; myths 
and legends of, 93—97; society of, 
in the Heroic Age, 98-108; piracy 
among, 99; religion of, 101-108; 
colonies, no, iii; hterature, 190- 
202; philosophy and science, 203- 
214; social life, 215-222. 

Gregory. For this name see Popes. 

Grey, Lady Jane, 552. 



Gue'bers, 401, n. See Fire-worship- 
pers. 
Guelphs (gwelfs), 504. 
Guillotine (gil'lo-teen'), the, 662. 
Guiscard (ges-kar'), Robert, 433. 
Guise (gweez), family of, 573. 
Gunpowder, effect of use in war, 427. 
Gunpowder Plot, the, 602. 
Gus-ta'vus Vasa, 512. 
Gutenberg (goo'ten-berg'), John, 476. 
Gy-lip'pus, Spartan commander, 152. 

Ha'des, realm of, loi ; the god, 103. 

Ha'dri-an, Roman emp., 320. 

Hal'i-car-nas'sus, mausoleum at, 182. 

Ha'lys, the, 75. 

Ha-mil'car Bar'cas, 252, 256. 

Hamites, 3. 

Hampden, John, 608, 609. 

Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 62. 

Han'ni-bal, his vow, 257; attacks 

Saguntum, 257; crosses the Alps, 

258, 259; in Italy, 259-264; his 

death, 265, n. 
Han'no, Carthaginian admiral, 253. 
Hanover, house of, 630; sovereigns 

of, 630, n. 
Hanseatic League, 468, 469. 
Harold I. (son of Godwin), k. of 

England, 434, 435. 
Harold Hardrada, k. of Norway, 434. 
Haroun-al-Raschid (ha-roon'al-rash'- 

id), 400. 
Has'dru-bal, Hannibal's brother, 264. 
Has'dru-bal, son-in-law of Hamilcar, 

256. 
Hastings, battle of, 434, 435. 
Hebert (a'ber'), 663. 
Hebrew monarchy, founding of, 63, 

64; division of, 66. 
Hebrew Temple, robbed by Titus, 

314. 

Hebrews, enter Egypt, 21; history 
of, 63-68; their religion and liter- 
ature, 68, 69. 

Hector, 95. 

He-gi'ra, the, 393. 

Helen, 95. 

He-le'na, St., 688. 

Hel'i-con, Mount, 88. 

Hellas, the name, 91, n, 

Hel-le'nes, the, 89-91. See Greeks^ 



744 



INDEX. 



Hel-len-ism, meaning of the term, 

159, n. 
Hel'les-pont, passage of, by Xerxes, 

132. 
Hellespontine bridges, 130, 1 31, 132. 
Helots, the, 112; revolt of, 140. 
Helvetic Republic, established, 670. 
Henry I., k. of England, 436, n.; II., 

437; III., 480, 481; VII., 541-543; 

VIII., 543-549- 
Henry II., k. of France, 572; III., 

577- 
Henry IV., emp. H. R. E., 454, 455. 

He-phses'tus, 102. 

He'ra, 102. 

Her'a-cle'a, battle of, 245. 

Her'a-cles, 93, 94, 97; -ehaldsean 

origin of the myth of, 47. 
Her'a-cli'dae, 96, 97. 
Her'a-cli'tus, 203. 
Her'a-cli'us, reign, 390, 396. 
Heralds, college of, at Rome, 231. 
Her-cu-la'ne-um, 316. 
Hercules, Pillars of, 71. 
Her'mann. See Arminius. 
Her 'mis, 102; statues of, at Athens, 

152, n. 
Hermits, 382, t^^t^. 
Her'mus, the, 75. 
He-rod'o-tus, 197. 
He-ros'tra-tus, 178. 
Herzegovina (hert'seh-go-vee'na), 

698. 
He'si-od, 191, 192. 
Hes'ti-a, 102. 
He-tai'rse, the, 217. 
Hez'e-ki'ah, k. of Judah, 49. 
Hi'e-ro, k. of Syracuse, 249; his 

death, 262. 
Hieroglyphical writing, Egyptian, 35, 

36; among the Accadians, 41. 
High Commission Court, 607, n., 622. 
Hildebrand. See Pope Gregory VII. 
Him'e-ra, battle of, 135, n. 
Hinduism, 12. 

Hindu Kush Mountains, 165. 
Hip-par'chus, 122, 214. 
Hip'pi-as, 122, 124, 126. 
Hip'po, 72. 

Hiram, k. of Tyre, 65, 72. 
History, Divisions of, I. 
Hittites, 23, 24. 



Hohenlinden (ho'en-lin'den), battle 
of, 674. 

Hohenstaufen (ho'en-stow'fen) , house 
of, contest with the Popes, 455. 

Hohenzollern (ho'en-stol'ern), house 
of, 642. 

Holland. See N^etherlands. In war 
with Louis XIV., 593. 

Holstein (hol'stin), 703. 

Holy Alliance, 692. 

Holy League, the, 543, n. 

Holy Roman Empire, relations of, to 
the Papacy, 419; renewal by Otto 
the Great, 502, 503; diminished 
by the Treaty of Westphalia, 587; 
end of, 677. 

Homer, 191. 

Hong-Kong, ceded to England, 726. 

Ho-no'ri-us, Roman emp., 338, 342. 

Hooker, Richard, 562, n. 

Horace, 354. 

Horn, 565. 

Hor-ten'si-us, 355. 

Ho'rus, 28. 

Hos'pi-tall-ers, order of, origin, 443; 
lose the island of Rhodes, 532; 
defend the island of Malta, 537, n. 

Howard, Catherine, 549. 

Hubertsburg, peace of, 646. 

Hu'di-bras, 625. 

Hudson Bay territory, 597. 

Huguenots(hu'ge-nots), name, 572, n. 
2; granted toleration by the Edict 
of Nantes, 578; political power 
crushed by Richelieu, 580; driven 
from France by the Revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, 594, 595. 

Huguenot Wars, 572-581. 

Humanism, 474. 

Hundred Years' War, 484-488. 

Hungarians, 382, n., 460. 

Hungary, revolution in (1848), 702. 

Huns, the, 13, 337, 345. 

Huss, John, 506. 

Hussites, 506. 

Hyk'sos, 21. 

Hy-met'tus, Mount, 88. 

Hy-pa'ti-a, 212. 

Iceland, settled by the Northmen, 41 1. 
I-con'o-clasts, the, 417; in the Neth- 
erlands, 564, 565. 



INDEX. 



745 



Ic-ti'nus, i8o. 

II, 45- 

Il'i-ad, the, 190, 191. 

Il'i-os, 95. 

Il-lyr'i-an corsairs, 254, 255. 

Independents, in English civil war, 
610, 611, 612. 

India, ancient history of, 8-12; inva- 
sion of, by Alexander, 12; partly 
subdued by Darius I., 79; British 
Empire in, 723-727; Afghan War 
of 1 838-1 842, 725; Sepoy Mutiny, 
726, 727; government of, trans- 
ferred to the English crown, 727; 
progress in, 727, n. 

Inquisition, set up by q. Isabella in 
Spain, 500; character of the tri- 
bunal, 527. 

Interdicts, 453, 454. 

lona (e-o'na), 380. 

Ionian islands, 88. 

lonians, the, 90, 91; migration to 
Asia Minor, 97. 

Ipsambul (ip-sam-bool'), temple of, 

Ip'svis, battle of, 170. 

Iran (ee-ran'), 74. 

Ireland, introduction of Christianity, 
379; during the Commonwealth, 
613; under the Protectorate, 615; 
given legislative independence, 632. 

Irene (i-re'ne), Eastern empress, 406. 

Ireton (ir'ton), 618. 

Isabella of Castile, 498-500. 

I'sis, 28. 

Is'lam. See Alohatnniedanism. 

Israel, kingdom of, 67. 

Is'sus, battle of, 162, 163. 

Italian city-republics, 464-470. 

Italian Renaissance, 474, 475, 510, 

511- 

Italians, the, of classical times, 223. 

I-tal'i-ca. See CorJinit{/n. 

Italy, divisions of, in ancient times, 

222; early inhabitants of, 223; 

state during the Middle Ages, 509; 

as reorganized by the Congress of 

Vienna, 708; history of, since, 708- 

714. 
Ith'a-ca, 88. 

Ivry (iv'ri or ev're'), battle of, 578. 
Iz-du-bar', Epic of, 46. 



Jac'o-bins, origin of club, 654; clubs 

closed, 666. 
Jac'o-bites, the name, 627. 
Jaffa, 670. 

"Jail Delivery," in French Revolu- 
tion, 452. 
James I., k. of England, reign, 601- 

606; II., reign, 622-624. 
James II., k. of Scotland, 543, n. 
Jamestown, 602. 
Ja'nus, 228; temple of, closed under 

Augustus, 307. 
Jason, 94. 
Jax-ar'tes, the, 400, 
Jeffries (jef'riz), chief justice, 622, n. 
Jen'a (Ger. ya'na), battle of, 678. 
Jeph'thah, 63. 

Jer'o-bo'am, first k. of Israel, 66. 
Jerome of Prague, 506. 
Jerusalem, captured by Nebuchadnez- 
zar, 58; temple at, 65; taken by 
Titus, 314; captured by the crusa- 
ders, 442; Latin kingdom of, estab- 
lished, 443; city taken by Saladin, 
444; end of the Latin kingdom of, 
448. 
Jesuits, order of, 527, 528. 
Jews, last dispersion of, 321 ; admitted 
to English House of Commons, 722; 
to corporate offices, 722. 
Joan of Arc, 486, 487. 
John, Don, of Austria, at Lepanto, 

537; in the Netherlands, 567. 
John, k. of England, quarrel with 
Innocent III., 456; signs Magna 
Charta, 479, 480. 
Jo-se'phus, works of, 69. 
Jourdan (zhoor-don'), 668. 
Judah, kingdom of, 67, 68. 
Judges, the, 63. 
Ju-gur'tha, k. of Numidia, 277; war 

with, 277, 278. 
Julian the Apostate, 333-335. 
Ju'li-a'nus, Did'i-us, 325, 326. 
Juno, 228, 
Jupiter, 228. 
Justin Martyr, 322. 
Justinian, reign, 389. 
Ju've-nal, 319, 355. 

Kar'nak, temple of, 22, 33. 
Kars, 697. 



746 



INDEX. 



iChar-toum', 728. 

Khita (khee'ta), 23. 

Ivhor'sa-bad, 49. 

Kleber (kla'ber'), 670, 671; his as- 
sassination, 674. 

Knighthood, religious orders of, 443 
and n. See Hospitallers, Temp- 
lars, and Teutonic Knights. 

Knox, John, 557. 

Konigsberg (ko'nigs-berg'), 643. 

Ko'ran, the, 394. 

Koreishites, 393, 394. 

Kosciusko (kos-si-us'ko), 641. 

Kossuth (kosh'shoot'), 702. 

Koyunjik, 55, 56; mound of, 55. 

Ku'dur-Na-Khun'ta, 42. 

Ku'fu I., 20. 

Lag-e-dse'mon. See Sparta. 

LaQ'e-dae-mo'ni-ans. See Spartans. 

La-co'ni-a, 87, 116. 

Lafayette (la'fa'yet'), 653. 

La-oc'o-on group, 188. 

Lahore (la-hor'), 165. 

Lam'a-chus, Athenian general, 152, n. 

Lamartine (la'mar'ten'), 660. 

La'mi-an War, 174. 

Lancaster, house of, 479, n.; badge 

of, 488. See Roses, Wars of the. 
Langton, Stephen, 456, 
La-nu'vi-um, 244. 
Lapps, the, 3. 
La'res, the, 228, 229, 
La Rochelle (la-ro'shel'), granted as 

a stronghold to the Huguenots, 

575; peace of, 575, n.; destroyed 

by Richelieu, 580. 
Las Ca'sas, 518, n. 
Latimer, 553. 
Latin colonies, 246, n. 
Latin League, 223; dissolution of, 244. 
Latins, 223; in the Social War, 279, 

280. 
La'ti-um, 222, 223. 
Laud, William, 607, 609. 
Layard (la'ard), discoveries of, at 

Nineveh, 57, 
Lebanon, Mount, 70. 
Leipsic (lip'sik), battle of, 584, 
Leo the Great, 346. 
Leo IIL, the Isaurian, Eastern emp., 

398,417- 



Leonardo da Vinci (la-o-nar'do da 

vin'chee), 511, n. 
Le-on'i-das, k. of Sparta, 133. 
Le-pan'to, battle of, 537. 
Lep'i-dus, the triumvir, 300, 301, 302, 

•304. 

Les'bos, 88, 97. 

Leuc'tra, battle of, 157. 

Leuthen (loi'ten), battle of, 646. 

Lewes (lu'ess), battle of, 481. 

Lewis L, Carolingian k., 408. See 
Louis. 

Liberalism in England, 715-720. 

Li-cin'i-us, C, laws of, 242, 243, 

Li-gu'ri-a, 222. 

Li-gu'ri-an Republic, 668, 674, 676, n. 

Li'ris, the, 223. 

Literature, Egyptian, 36; -Chaldsean, 
44-47; Assyrian, 57; Hebrew, 68, 
69; Grecian, 190-192; Roman, 
354-359; French, beginnings of, 
496-498; under Louis XIV., 599; 
Spanish, 500, 501; German, be- 
ginnings of, 508; English, under 
Henry VHL, 529; of the Eliza- 
bethan Age, 561 ; of the Puritan p., 
617, 618; of the Restoration, 624; 
of Queen Anne's Age, 629. 

Liyy, 356. 

Loire (Iwar), 665. 

Loll'ards, the, 491, 540. 

Lombards, the, 374, 404, 405. 

Longjumeau (long-zhii-mo'), peace 

of, 575' n- 

Longus, L. Sempronius, 259. 

Long. Walls, the, of Athens, destruc- 
tion of, 154. 

Lords, House of. See Parliament. 

Lor'raine', ceded to the German Em- 
pire, 691. 

Lo-thair', emp., 408. 

Louis, prince of Conde, 573, 574. 

Louis Vn., k. of France, 444; IX., 
448, n.; XL, 495; XIIL, 579; 
XIV., reign, 590-599; intrigues 
with the Stuarts, 620, 622, 628; 
XV., 650; XVI., his accession, 650; 
his flight, 654; trial and execution, 
658; XVIIL, 685, 686, 687, 688. 

Louis Napoleon. See Napoleon III.. 

Louis Philippe, k. of France, 689. 

Loyola (lo-yo'la), St. Ignatius, 528. 



INDEX. 



747 



Lu'beck, peace of, 583. 

Lu'can, 313. 

Lu-ca'ni-a, 222. 

Lu'ce-res, 224. 

Lu-cil'i-us, 354. 

Lu'ci-us, grandson of Augustus, 308. 

Lu-cre'ti-us, 354. 

Luneville (lu'ne-vil), treaty of, 674. 

Lu'si-ta'ni-ans, the, 272. 

Luther, Martin, opposes Tetzel, 522; 
his ninety-five theses, 522, 523; 
burns the papal bull, 523; at the 
Diet of Worms, 523, 524; his death, 

525- 
Liitzen (loot'sen), battle of, 585. 

Lux'or, temple of, 2>Z- 

Ly-ce'um, the Athenian, 122. 

Lyc'i-a, 75, 268. 

Ly-cur'gus, legend of, 112, 113. 

Lydia, 75. 

Lydians, the, 75. 

Lyons, 660. 

Ly-san'der, Spartan general, 154. 

Ly-sim'a-chus, kingdom of, 171. 

Ly-sip'pus, 186, 187. 

Mac'ca-bees, the, 68. 

Macchiavelli (mak-ke-a-vel'lee), 468, 
n. 

Macedonia, population of, 159; under 
Philip II., 1 59-1 61 ; after the death 
of Alexander, 1 73-1 75. 

Macedonian supremacy, p. of, 159- 
168. 

Mad-rid', peace of, 532. 

Mae-ce'nas, minister of Augustus, 307. 

Mag'de-burg, sack of, 584. 

Magellan (ma-jel'lan), 515, 516. 

Magenta (ma-jen'ta), battle of, 712. 

Magi, 78, n.,' 84. 

Ma'gi-an-ism, 78, n. 

Magna Charta, 479, 480. 

Magna Grsecia, 1 1 1 . 

Mag-ne'si-a, battle of, 268. 

Ma'go, brother of Hannibal, 261. 

Magyars (mod'yors'). See Hunga- 
rians. 

Ma-har'bal, Carthaginian general, 
262. 

Malplaquet (mal'pla'ka'), battle of, 

597. 
Man'de-ville, Sir John, 451. 



Man'e-tho, 19. 

Manlius, M., 240, 241, 242. 

Man'ti-ne'a, battle of, 158. 

Marat (ma-ra'), 655; his assassina- 
tion, 660. 

Mar'a-thon, battle of, 126, 127. 

Mar-cel'lus, Marcus Claudius, 262. 

Mar-eel 'lus, nephew of Augustus, 308. 

Mar'co Po'lo, 451. 

Mar-do'ni-us, Persian general, 80, 135. 

Margaret, Duchess of Parma, 564. 

Ma-ren'go, battle of, 674. 

Marie Antoinette (ma're'on'twa'net') , 
her execution, 660. 

Marie Theresa (ma-re'a te-ree'sa), of 
Austria, 645. 

Mariette (ma're-ett'), 29. 

Marlborough (mawl'b'ro), d. of, 596, 

597- 

Ma'ri-us, Caius (ka'yus), in the Ju- 
gurthine war, 278; defeats the 
Cimbri and Teutones, 278, 279; 
contest with Sulla, 281; wander- 
ings of, 281, 282; his death, 282. 

Mars, 228. 

Marseillaise (mar'sal-yaz') hymn, 
658. 

Marsic War. See Social War. 

Mary Stuart, q. of Scots, 557, 558. 

Mary Tudor, q. of England, reign, 

552-554. 

Mary, wife of William III, of Eng- 
land, 624-628. 

Mas'i-nis'sa, k. of Numidia, 269, 270. 

Maspero, Professor, quoted, 39. 

Mas-sa'li-a, iii. 

Maurepas (mor'pa'), 650. 

Maurice (maw'riss), of Nassau, 569. 

Mau-so'lus, 182. 

Max-en'ti-us, 353. 

Max'i-min, 328. 

Max-im'i-an, Roman emp., 330, 331. 

Maximilian I., emp. H. R. E., 507. 

Mazarin (maz-a-reen'). Cardinal, 591, 
592. _ 

Mazzini (mat-see'nee), Joseph, 710. 

Mec'ca, 392. 

Medes, 4, 74. 

Medici (med'e-chee), Catherine de, 
her character, 573; her part in the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 576; 
Mary de, 579. 



748 



INDEX. 



Medina (me-dee'na), 396. 
Meg'a-cles, the archon, 119, 120, 122. 
Meg'a-lop'o-lis, 157. 
Majestas, law of, 309. 
Melanchthon (me-lank'thon), Philip, 

525. n. 

Memnon, statues of, 34. 

Memphis, 20. 

Mendicant Friars, origin of the order 
of, 456. 

Men'e-la'us, 92, 95. 

Me-ne'ni-us, 234. 

Me-neph'tha, 24. 

Me'nes, 20. 

Merovseus, 374. 

Mes-se'ni-a, 87, 116. 

Mes-se'ni-an Wars, 116, 117. 

Mes-si'na (mes-see'na), 117. 

Me-tau'rus, battle of, 264. 

Me-tel'lus, Roman tribune, 295. 

Me-temp'sy-cho-sis. See Transmi- 
gration of souls. 

Methodism, rise of, 721; effects of, 
upon religious toleration, 721, 

Metternich (met'ter-nik). Prince, 
702. 

Metz, 653. 

Mexico, conquest of, by Cortez, 516. 

Michael Angelo (an'ja-lo), 468, n., 
511, n. 

Mil'an decree, 679. 

Mi-le'tus, 97, III. 

Military roads of ancient Rome, 255. 

Mil-ti'a-des, 126, 127, 128. 

Milton, John, 617, 618. 

Minerva, 228. 

Min'ne-sing'ers, 508. 

Mi-nor'ca, ceded to England, 597. 

Mi'nos, 94. 

Min'o-taur, the, 94. 

Mith' ri-da' tes the Great, massacres 
Italians in Asia Minor, 281; wars 
with Rome, 282-288; his death, 
289. 

Moawiyah (mo-a-wee'yeh), 400. 

Moe'si-a, 339. 

Mohammed II., sultan of the Otto- 
mans, 462, 463. 

Mohammedanism, doctrines of, 394; 
spread of, 401 ; defects of, 401. 

Moliere (mo'le-er'), 599. 

Mo'loch, 248. 



Moltke, 704. 

Monasteries, suppression of, by Henry 

VIIL, 547. 
Monasticism, rise of, 383; advantages 

of, Z^Z- 

Mongols, 460, 461. 

Monk, 617. 

Monmouth, d. of, 622, n. 

Montcalm (mont-kam'), 631. 

Montfort, Simon de, summons the 
English Commons and Parliament, 
481. 

Moors, 397; culture of, 401, 402; 
kingdom of Granada, 499; perse- 
cuted by Philip II., 536; expulsion 
from Spain, 538. 

More, Sir Thomas, 540; the Utopia, 
549» 550; liis execution, 549. 

Moreau (mo-ro'), 668. 

Mor-gar'ten Pass, battle of, 506. 

Morton, English minister, 541. 

Mos'cow, burning of, 683, 684. 

Mountainists, the name, 655. 

Mum'mi-us, Roman consul, 269. 

Municipia, 279. 

MUnzer, 524. 

Murat (mii'ra'). Napoleon's brother- 
in-law, 680. 

Mutiny Bill. — This was an impor- 
tant statute of the first year of 
William and Mary, by which the 
command of the army was given to 
the king for twelve months only. 
The necessity of an annual renewal 
of this act secures indirectly the 
yearly assembling of the represen- 
tatives of the nation. 

Myc'a-le, battle of, 135. 

My'lae, battle of, 249, 250. 

Myt'i-le'ne, 149, 150. 

Nab'o-na'di-us, last king of Babylon, 

60. 
Nab'o-po-las'sar, 58. 
Nse'vi-us, 354. 
Nantes (nants), edict of, publication 

of, 578; revocation of the edict of, 

594; in Reign of Terror, 665. 
Naples, annexed to kingdom of Italy, 

712, 713- 
Napoleon. See Bonaparte. 
Napoleon III., 690, 691. 



INDEX. 



749 



Narses, 372. 

Nar'va, battle of, 637. 

Nase'by, battle of, 612, 

National Assembly, French, 65 1 . 

Nau'cra-tis, ill. 

Nax'os, 138, 139. 

Ne-ar'chus, admiral of Alexander, 166. 

Neb-u-chad'nez-zar, 58, 59. 

Ne'cho II,, 25, 26. 

Necker (nek'er), 650. 

Neg-ro-pont'. See Euboea. 

Negro Race, 2. 

Nelson, English admiral, 670, 678. 

Ne'me-a, 106. 

Nem'e-sis, 103, 

Ne'o-Pla'to-nists, the, 212. 

Nero, Roman emp., 312, 313. 

Nerva, Roman emp., 317, 318. 

Nes'tor, 95. 

Netherlands, the country, 563; under 
Charles V., 563; revolt of the, 563- 
571; pacification of Ghent, 567; 
union of Utrecht, 567; treaty of 
1609, 5 70; Spanish Netherlands, 
war concerning, 593; ceded to Aus- 
tria, 597; Austrian Netherlands 
ceded to the French Republic, 669. 

Ni-C9e'a, 332; captured by the crusa- 
ders, 442. 

Nice (nees), 668. 

New Amsterdam, 620. 

Newfoundland (nu'fund-land'), sur- 
rendered by France to England, 

597- 

New Model, the, organized, 61 1; dis- 
banded, 618. 

New Or'le-ans, 631. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 630. 

Ney (na), Marshal, 684. 

Nibelungen, song of the, 508. 

Ni-gas'a, 165. 

Nicholas L, czar, reign, 693-696. 

Nig'i-as, peace of, 150. 

Ni^'i-as, 152, n. 

Nic'o-me-di'a, 330. 

Ni-cop'o-lis, battle of, 462. 

Niemen (nee'men), the, 684. 

Nihilism, 698, 699. 

Nile, the valley of, i ; inundation of, 
18; delta of, 18; cataracts of, 18, 
n.; deposits of, 18, n.; Canopic 
branch of, 25. 



Nimequen (ne-ma'gen), treaty of, 594. 

Nineveh, fall of, 51 ; ruins of, 54, n. 

Nin'e-veh, battle of, 390. 

Nirvana (nir'vah-na), 12. 

No-men'tum, 244. 

Normans, in Gaul, 413; in Italy, 433, 
n.; their conquest of England, 433- 
437; effects of Norman Conquest 
on literature, 489, 490. See North- 
men. 

Norsemen. See Northmen. 

Northmen, 410-413. 

Notables, assembly of, 650. 

Nottingham, 610. 

Nov'go-rod', 469. 

Nova Scotia (no'va sko'shi-a), 597. 

Nu'bi-a, 2)2^. 

Nu'ma, 225. 

Nu-man'ti-a, 272. 

Nystadt (nii'stad), peace of, 638. 

Gates (ots), Titus, 621. 

O'-ehus, Artaxerxes, k. of Persia, 166. 

O'Con'nell, Daniel, 722. 

Oc-ta'vi-a, wife of Antony, 304. 

Oc-ta'vi-us, Roman consul, 282. 

Oc-ta'vi-us, Caius (Augustus), op- 
poses Antony, 301 ; enters Second 
Triumvirate, 301; divides the 
world with Antony, 303; defeats 
Antony at battle of Actium, 304; 
reign of, 305-309. See Augustus. 

Od'e-na'tus, 329. 

Gd'o-a'cer, 348. 

0-dys'seus, 88. 

Od'ys-sey, the, 96, 190, 191. 

0-i'leus, 95. 

0-lym'pi-a, 106, 107. 

0-lym'pi-ad, 107. 

Olympian Council, 102, 103; Games, 
106, 107. 

Olympian Zeus, by Phidias, 185. 

Olympus, Mount, 88. 

O'mar, cahph, 397, 399. 

Ommaya (om-ma'ya), 400, n. 

Ommiades, house of, 400, 

Opium War, 725, 726. 

Oracles, Greek, 104-106. 

Orange, William of, 565-569. 

Orange-Stuarts, the, 626-629. 

Oratory, among the Greeks, 198-201; 
among the Romans, 335. 



750 



INDEX. 



Ordeals, 387. 

Or'le-ans, Maid of, 486, 487. 

Or'le-ans, siege of, 486. 

Or'mazd, 83, 84. 

0-ron'tes, the, 171. 

Or'phe-us, 94. 

0-si'ris, 28, 29, 30. 

Os'sa, Mount, 88. 

Os'tra-cism, 123, 124. 

Os'tro-goths, the, 337; kingdom of, 

371- 

Oswy, k. of Northumbria, 380. 

Othman, caliph, 399. 

O'tho, Roman emp., 313. 

Otto I., the Great, emp. H. R. E., 502. 

Oudenarde (ow'den-ar'deh), battle 

of, 597- 
Ov'id, 354. 

Oxenstiern (oks'en-steern'), 586. 
Ox'us, the, 165. 

Pac-to'lus, the, 75. 

Paine, Thomas, 654. 

Palatine, 224. 

Pa-lat'i-nate, war of the, 595. 

Pallas. See Atkejta. 

Palmyra, fall of, 329, 

Pan-ath'e-nae'a, the Great, 180, n. 

Pa-nor'mus, battle of, 251. 

Pan'the-on, 350. 

Papacy, the, basis of temporal power, 
404; growth of its power, 414-420; 
primacy of the bishop of Rome, 
415; at the fall of the Empire in 
the West, 415; authority enhanced 
by its missions, 416; effect upon, 
of the iconoclastic controversy, 413; 
appeals to Rome, 418; relations of, 
to the H. R. E., 419; influence 
upon, of the crusades, 449; su- 
premacy of, 452-457; reforms of 
Gregory VII., 452; at its height, 
455 ; decline of its temporal power, 
457-459; removal of the papal 
chair to Avignon, 457; the great 
schism, 458; revolt of the tempo- 
ral princes, 458; end of temporal 
power, 714; decree of papal in- 
fallibility, 714. 

Papal States, beginning of, 404. 

Pa-pin'i-an, 326. 

Papyrus paper, 35. 



Pa'ri-ahs, 9, 

Paris, son of Priam, 95. 

Paris, treaty of (1763), 631 ; peace of 
(1763), 646; treaty of (1856), 695. 

Parliament, English, under James I,, 
603, 604; under Charles I., 606, 
607; the Long P., 609; friends of 
the king shut out, 612; House of 
Lords abolished, 613; at the time of 
the Commonwealth, 614, 615; dis- 
solved by Cromwell, 614; Rump P., 
614; the Little P., or Praise-God 
Barebone P., 614; convention P., 
624; union of English and Scottish 
parliaments, 629; Irish, secures 
legislative independence, 632. 

Parma, d. of (Alexander Farnese), 

567- 
Par-nas'sus, Mount, 88. 

Pa'ros, 128. 

Parr, Catherine, 549. 

Parrhasius (par-ra'shi-us), 189. 

Par'sees, the, 401, n. 2. 

Par'the-non, the, treasures of, 179, 
n.; description of, 180, 182. 

Par-then'o-poe'an Republic, estab- 
lished, 670 ; abolished, 671. 

Parthia, 172, n. 

Parthian E., end of, 334, n. 

Pa-sar'ga-dse, tomb of Cyrus at, 77. 

Patriarchs, the Hebrew, 63. 

Patricians, the name, 224; in early 
Rome, 224. 

Patricius. See St. Patrick. 

Pa-tro'clus, 95. 

Pau'lus, ^-mil'i-us, 268. 

Pau-sa'ni-us, 135, 137. 

Pavia (pa-vee'a), battle of, 532. 

Peasants' War, 524. 

Pelasgian architecture, 176, 177. 

Pelasgians, the, 89, 90. 

Pe'li-on, Mount, 88. 

Pe-lop'i-das, 157. 

Pel'o-pon-ne'sus, the divisions of, 87; 
the name, 92. 

Peloponnesian (-zhan) War, the, 147- 

155- 

Pe'lops, 92. 

Pe-na'tes, the, 228, 229. 

Pe-nel'o-pe, 96. 

Peninsular Wars, 679, 680. 

Pentateuch (pen'ta-tuk), 395. ~ 



INDEX. 



751 



Pep'in the Short, 403, 404; his death, 

408. 
Per-dic'cas, 170 and n. 
Per'ga-mus, 171, n. 
Pe'ri-an'der, no, 203, n. 
Per'i-cles, fosters the naval power of 

Athens, 141, 142; his social policy, 

144; his death, 149; as an orator, 

199. 
Pericles, age of, 141-146; peace of, 

142, 143. 
Per'i-ce'ci, 112, 114. 
Per-sep'o-lis, ruins of, 85; destroyed 

by Alexander, 164. 
Per'seus, k. of Macedonia, 268. 
Persia, conquered by the Saracens, 

396. 
Persian E., established by Cyrus, 74; 

political history of, 74-82; nature 

of government, 82; table of kings, 

86; the New, 334, n. 
Persians, origin of, 4; relation to the 

Medes, 74; literature and religion, 

83, 84. 
Per'si-us, 355. 

Per'ti-nax, Roman emp., 325, 
Peru, conquest of, by Pizarro, 5 1 6, 5 1 7. 
Peter the Great, of Russia, 633-639; 

III., 646. 
Peter the Hermit, 439, 441. 
Petition of Right, 606. 
Petrarch (pee'trSrk), 474. 
Phid'i-as, 180, 184, 186. 
Phi-dip 'pi-des, 126. 
Philip of An'jou, 596, 597, 
Philip Augustus, k. of France in third 

crusade, 445. 
Philip the Fair, k. of France, 494. 
Philip the Handsome, archd. of iVus- 

tria, 530. 
Philip n., k, of Macedonia, 159-161; 

v., 267. 
Philip, Roman emp., 328. 
Philip n., k. of Spain, reign, 535- 

538; HI., 538; IV., 593. 
Phi-lip 'pi, battle of, 302, 303. 
Phi-lis'tine, 64. 
Phi'lo, 69, 212. 
Phoe'bus. See Apollo, 
Phocians, the, 160. 
Pho'cis, 87. 
Phoe-nic'i-a, 70. 



Phoenicians, racial affinities, 70; their 
commerce, 70, 71; colonies, 72; 
arts disseminated by, 72; enter- 
prises aided by, 73; circumnaviga- 
tion of Africa, by, 73. 

Pic'ar-dy, 439. 

Pi-ce'num, 222. 

Picts, the, 320, 336, 344. 

Pilgrimage of Grace, 548. 

Pin'dar, 192. 

Pindus Mountains, 88. 

Piracy among the Greeks, 99. 

Pi-rae'us, 129, 136, 137. 

Pirates, defeated by Pompey, 287, 288. 

Pisa (pee'sa), church council of, 458. 

Pis'is-trat'i-dae, 121-123. 

Pi-sis'tra-tus, the tyrant, 121, 122. 

Pis-to'ri-a, battle of, 290. 

Pit'ta-cus, 203, n. 

Pitt, William, the Elder, 631; the 
Younger, 720. 

Pizarro (pe-zar'ro), Francisco, 517. 

Placentia (pla-sen'shi-a), council of, 
440. 

Plague, the, in era of Justinian, 389; 
in London, 620. 

Plan-tag'e-net, house of, 479; history 
of P. period, 479-489. 

Plassey, battle of, 725. 

Pla-tae'a, battle of, 135; attack upon, 
by Thebans, 148; destruction of, 
by the Spartans, 150. 

Pla-tae'ans, the, at Marathon, 126. 

Plato, 207, 208. 

Plau'tus, 354. 

Plebeians (ple-be'yans), origin, 225; 
first secession of, 233, 234; ad- 
mitted to the consulship, 242, 243; 
admitted to various public offices, 

243- 
Plevna, 697. 

Pliny the Elder, 357; the Younger, 

his correspondence with Trajan, 

3I9» 320. 
Plo-ti'nus, 212. 
Plu'tarch, 202. 
Plu'to. See Hades. 
Poitiers (poi-teerz'), battle of, 485, 

486. 
Poland, first partition of, 640; second, 

646; third, 640, 641; revolution in 

(1830), 693, 694. 



752 



INDEX. 



Pol-len'ti-a, battle at, 339. 

Po-lyb'i-us, 202. 

Pol'y-carp, 322. 

Pol'y-cle'tus, 186. 

Po-lyc'ra-tes, no. 

Pol'yg-no'tus, 188, 189. 

Po-lyx'e-na, 189, n. 

Pompadour (pon-pa'door'), Madame 
de, 650. 

Pompeii (pom-pa'yee), 316, 317, n. 

Pontifex Maximus, 230, 

Pontiffs, college of, at Rome, 230. 

Pontus, 170, n. 

Pope, Gregory VII., 452-455- 

Popes. See Papacy. Gregory I., 
378; Stephen II., 404; Leo III., 
406,407; Gregory II., 417; Urban 
n., 439, 440; Gregory VII., 452- 
455; Innocent III., 455; Martin 
v., 458; Alexander V., 458; Pius 
v., 537; Leo X., 544; Clement 
VII., 545; Sixtus v., 558; Gregory 
XIII., 577; Pius VII., made pris- 
oner by Napoleon, 681; Pius IX., 
714. 

Popish Plot, 621. 

Pompey, C. Neius, the Great, in 
Spain, 285 ; defeats gladiators, 285, 
286; defeats pirates, 287, 288; con- 
ducts the Mithridatic War, 288; 
conquers Syria, 288; his triumph, 
289; enters triumvirate, 291; rivalry 
with Csesar, 293-296; his death, 
296. 

Portugal, acquired by Philip II., 535; 
becomes independent of Spain, 538, 
n.; in Napoleonic wars, 679. 

Po'rus, Indian king, 165. 

Por'tus Ro-ma'nus, 311. 

Poseidon (po-si'don), 102. 

Pot'i-dse'a, 147. 

" Potsdam Giants," 644. 

Prse-nes'te, 244. 

Prse-to'ri-an guard, formation of, 309; 
disbanded, 326. 

Pragmatic sanction, 645. 

Prague (Ger. prag), peace of (1866), 
704. 

Prax-it'e-les, 186. 

Pres'ton Pans, battle of, 631. 

Pretender, the Old, 628; the Young, 
631. 



Pride's Purge, 612. 
Printing in China, 14. 
Pro'bus, Roman emp., 329. 
Prod'i-cus, 205. 

Proscriptions, under the second tri- 
umvirate, 302. 
Pro-tag'o-ras, 205. 
Protectorate, the English, 615, 616. 
Protestation, the Great, 604. 
Protestantism. See Reformation. 
Protestants, origin of name, 525. 
Province, first Roman, 254. 
Prussia, duchy of, 642, 643; rise of, 

642-646, 
Psalms, authorship of, 64, n, 
Psam-met'i-chus I., 24, 25. 
Ptol'e-mies, kingdom of the, 172, 173^ 
Ptol'e-my, Claudius, the astronomer, 

214. 
Ptol'e-my I., Soter, 172, 173; II., 

Philadelphus, 173; III., Eu-er-ge'- 

tes, 173. 
Public lands in Italy, 274, 275. 
Punjab (piin-jawb'), conquered by 

Darius I., 79. 
Pultowa (pol-ta'va), battle of, 638. 
Punic War, first, 247-253; second, 

258-266; third, 269-272. 
Puritan literature, 617. 
Puritanism, its extreme severity, 625. 
Puritans, origin of, 556. 
Pu-te'o-li, 284. 
Pyd'na, battle of, 268, 269. 
Py'los, 150. 

Pym (Pim), John, 609. 
Pyramid kings, 20. 
Pyramids, the, 31, 32; battle of the, 

669. 
Pyrenees (pir'e-nez), treaty of the, 

591- 
Pyr'rho, 212. 

Pyrr'hus, k. of Epirus, 244-246. 
Py-thag'o-ras, 204. 
Pyth'i-a, 105. 

Que-bec, heights of, 631. 

Ra, 45. 

Races of mankind, 2; table of, 7. 

Racine (ra-seen'), 599. 

Rad-a-gai'sus, 341. 

Railroads, 729, 730, 



INDEX, 



753 



Raleigh (raw'H), Sir Walter, 560, 604. 
Ram'a-dan', feast of, 395. 
Ra-me'ses II., 23, t^i; mummy of, 

39. 
Ramillies (ram'e-lez), battle of, 597. 

Ram'nes, the, 223, 224. 

Raphael (raf'a-el), 511, n. 

Ra'phi-a, battle of, 49. 

Rastadt (ras'tat), 597, 

Ravaillac (ra'val'yak'), 579. 

Real presence. — In Roman Catholic 
theology, the actual presence of 
the body and blood of Christ, in 
the sacrament of the Lord's supper. 
See p. 551. 

Reformation, beginnings of the, un- 
der Luther, 519-525; progress of, 
checked, 525-528; general results, 
528, 529; in England, 539-562; in 
France, 572-581. 

Reform Bill of 1832, 716-718; of 
1867, 718, 719; of 1884, 719. 

Reg'i-^ides, the English, 618. 

Reg'u-lus, Roman consul, 250, 251. 

Re'ho-bo'am, k. of the Hebrews, 66. 

Reign of Terror, 659-666. 

Renaissance (ruh-na-songs'). See 
Italian Renaissance. 

Restitution, edict of, 583. 

Restoration of the Stuarts, 616-618. 

Revenue, settlement of the, in reign 
of William HI., 627. 

Revival, age of, characteristics of the, 
366. 

Revival of learning, 471-477; in 
England, 539, 540. 

Revolution, American, 632; influence 
of, upon France, 649; English, 601- 
608; of 1688, in England, 623, 
624, 626; French (i 789-1 799), 
647-672; German, of 1830, 700; 
of 1848, 701, 702; Hungarian, of 
1848, 702; Itahan, of 1820, 709; 
of 1830, 710; of 1848, 710; Polish, 
of 1830-1832, 693, 694. 

Rhe'gi-um, 117. 

Rhe'nus, the, 301. 

Rhodes, 88, 89, 170, n.; colossus at, 
187, 188; captured by the Turks 
from the Knights of St John, 532. 

Richard I., the Lion-hearted, k. of 
England, as a Crusader, 445, 446. 



Richelieu (resh'eh-loo). Cardinal, 
579-581; lays the basis of the 
power of Louis XIV., 591. 

Ridley, 553. 

Rienzi (re-en'zee), tribune of Rome, 
509, 510. 

Rights, bill of, 626. 

Rig- Veda, the, 9. 

Robespierre (rob'es-pe'-§r'), 655; 
effects the ruin of Hebert and Dan- 
ton, 663; his part in the Reign of 
Terror, 664, 665; his execution, 
665, 666. 

Roderic, k. of Visigoths, 398. 

Roland, Madame, 661. 

Roland, paladin, 405. 

Rollo, Scandinavian chief, 413. 

Roman citizenship extended to the 
Italian allies, 280; extended to the 
provincials, 327. 

Roman emperors, table of, 349. 

Roman Empire, establishment of, 
305; extent of, under Augustus, 
306, 307; public sale of, 325; di- 
vided into prefectures by Constan- 
tine the Great, ZTiV^ ^^^^1 division 
of, 338; in the East, 338, 339; fall 
of, in the West, 347. 

Roman Law, 358, 359; revival of, in 
Middle Ages, 388. 

Romance languages, formation of, 386. 

Romance nations, 385. 

Ro-ma'noff, house of, 633. 

Romans, religion of, 228-231; sacred 
games of, 231; social life among, 
359-365; education, 359; the pub- 
lic amusements, 360 ; the drama 
among, 360. 

Rome, location of, 223; hills of, 224; 
classes of society during regal peri- 
od, 224, 225 ; early government of, 
224; kings of, 225; sack of, by 
the Gauls, 239-241 ; first Roman 
province, 254; last triumph at, 339; 
ransom of, 341, 342; sack of, by 
Alaric, 342, 343; effect of the dis- 
aster upon paganism, 343; sacked 
by the Vandals, 346, 347; relation 
of fall to world-history, 367 ; sacked 
by the Imperial army, 532; be- 
comes the capital of the kingdom 
of Italy, 713, 714. 



754 



INDEX. 



Rom'u-lus, 225. 

Romulus Augustus, last Roman emp. 

in the West, 348. 
Roncesvalles (ron-thes-val'yes). Pass 

of, 405. 
Roses, Wars of the, 488, 489; union 

of the, 541. 
Rosetta Stone, 36, 
Ross'back, battle of, 646. 
Roundheads, origin of name, 610. 
Rousseau (roo'so'), 649. 
Roussillon (roo'sel'yon'), 591. 
Royal touch, superstition of, 601, 602. 
Rox-a'na, bride of Alexander, 165. 
Ru' bi-con, the, Csesar crosses, 294, 

295- 

Rump Parliament, 614. 

Runnymede, 480. 

Ru'ric, 411. 

Russia, invasion of, by Darius I., 79; 
introduction of Christianity, 382, n.; 
the name, 508; Tartar conquest of, 
508; freed from the yoke of the 
Mongols, 508, 509; under Peter 
the Great, 633-639; under Cath- 
erine the Great, 639-641 ; invasion 
of, by Napoleon, 683, 684; Alex- 
ander I. and the Holy Alliance, 
692; Russo-Turkish War of 1828- 
1829, 693; Crimean War, 694, 695; 
emancipation of the serfs, 696; 
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, 
696-698; Nihilism, 698, 699. 

Russo-Turkish War of 1 828-1829, 
693; of 1 877- 1 878, 696-698. 

Ryswick (riz'wik), treaty of, 596. 

Sa'bee-an-ism, 45, 

Sacred War, first, 108; second, 160. 

Sadowa, battle of, 704, 

Sages, the Seven, 203. 

Sa-gun'tum, 257. 

St. Antony, 383. 

St. Augustine, 358. 

St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 576, 

577- 
St. Benedict, 383. 
St. Ber'nard, 444. 
St. Boniface (bo'ne'fass'), 382. 
St. Co-lum'ba, 380. 
St. Dom'i-nic, 456. 
St. Francis, 456. 



St. Germain (zhir'man ), treaty of, 

574, 575- 

St. Jerome, 358. 

St. John, knights of. See Hospital- 
lers. 

St. Patrick, 379, 

St. Petersburg, founding of, 637. 

Sa'is, 25. 

Sal'adin, captures Jerusalem, 444; 
the antagonist of Richard, 445. 

Sal'a-mis, naval battle of, 134. 

Sal'lust, 356. 

Sa-lo'na, 331. 

Samaria, 48, 66. 

Samaritans, origin of, 67. 

Samnite War, first, 243; second, 244; 
third, 244. 

Sam'ni-um, 222. 

Sa'mos, 88, no. 

Samson, 63. 

Samuel, judge of Israel, 63. 

Sans-culotte (song-ku-lot'), 663. 

Sa'por, k. of Persia, 328, n. 

vSappho (saf'fo), 192. 

Saracens, conquests of, 392-402; pre- 
serve Greek science, 473. See 
Arabs, and Mohamined. 

Sar'a-cus. See Esarhaddon II. 

Sar'da-na-pa'lus. See Asshurbanipal. 

Sar-din'i-a, acquired by Rome, 254. 

Sar'dis, capital of Lydia, 75; cap- 
tured by Cyrus, 76; sacked by the 
Greeks, 80. 

Sar'gon L, k. of Assyria, 42, 48, 49. 

Sa'rum, 717. 

Sassanian monarchy, 334, n. 

Saul, k. of the Hebrews, 64. 

Sa-vo-na-ro'la, Girolamo, 511. 

Saxons. See Anglo-Saxons. Invade 
Britain, 336; subjugated by Charle- 
magne, 406. 

Scandinavians. See A^orthmen. Con- 
version of, 382. 

Scar-a-bfe'us, the, 29. 

Schles'wig, 703. 

Schmal'kald, League of, 533. 

Scholasticism, 471, 472. 

Schoolmen, chief of the, 471. 

Scipio, P. Cornelius (Africanus), 264, 
265. 

Scipio, Publius Cornelius, 259, 260. 

Scone, stone of, 482. 



INDEX. 



755 



Scotland, wars with England, 482, 
483; under the Commonwealth, 
614; under the Protectorate, 615. 

Scots, the, 320, 

Scriptures, translated into the Gothic 
language, 377. 

Scyl'la, 104. 

Seb'as-to'pol, 695. 

Sedgemoor, battle of, 622, n. 

Se-ja'nus, 309, 310. 

Sel eu-ci-a, 171. 

Se-leu'^i-dse, the, kingdom of, 171, 
172, 

Se-leu'cus Ni-ca'tor, 170, 171. 

Self-denying ordinance, in English 
civil war, 611. 

Semitic peoples, 4. 

Sempach (sem'pak), battle of, 506. 

Sen'e-ca, 312, 313, 356. 

Senlac. See Hastings. 

Sen-nach'e-rib, 49, 50; palace of, at 
Nineveh, 56; will of, 57. 

Sen-ti'num, battle of, 244. 

Separatists, 556. 

Sepoy Mutiny, 726, 727. 

Sep'tu-a-gint, the, 201. 

Serfs, 425 ; under feudal system, 425 ; 
emancipation of, in Russia, 696. 

Ser-to'ri-us, 285. 

Ser-ve'-tus, 527. 

Servile Wars in Sicily, 273, 274, n. 

Servius Tullius, wall of, 226; consti- 
tution of, 227. 

Se-sos'tris. See Ra7neses II. 

Set, 28. 

Se'ti I., 23. 

Seven Weeks' War, 703, 

Seven Years' War, 645, 646. 

Se-ve'rus, Alexander, Roman emp., 
327> 328. 

Se-ve'rus, Sep-tim'i-us, Roman emp., 
326. 

Seville (sev'il), 398. 

Seymour, Jane, 549. 

Seymour, Lord Henry, 559, 

Sex'ti-us, Roman governor, 282. 

Shakespeare, William, 562, n. 

Sha'man-ism, 45. 

Sharrukin. See Sargon I. 

Sheba, q. of, 66. 

Shepherd kings, the. See Hyksos. 

Shiites (shee'ites), 395, n. 



Ship-money, 608. 

Shu'mir, 41. 

Sib'yl-line Books, keepers of, 229, 
230; burned, 283. 

Si-911'i-an expedition, 151-153. 

Si-cil'i-an Vespers, 504, n. 

Sicily, island of, 222; made a Roman 
province, 254; made part of king- 
dom of Italy, 712, 713. 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 562, n., 570. 

Sidon, 70. 

Silesia (si-lee'shi-a), 645. 

Sim'o-ny, 453. 

Sinon, 96. 

Siwah (see'wa), oasis of, 163. 

Skeptics, the, 211, 212. 

Slavery, among the Greeks, 98, 220, 
221; among the Romans, 273, 274, 

364- 
Slavonians, 369. 

Smer'dis, the false. See Gomates. 
Smith, Sir Sidney, 670. 
Smyrna (smir'na), 191. 
Sobieski (so-be-es'kee), 538, n. i. 
Social life among the Romans, 359- 

365- 
Social War in Italy, 279, 281. 
So'ci-i, 279. 

Soc'ra-tes, 121, 156, 206, 207, 
Sog'di-a'na, 165. 

Soissons (swas'son'), vase of, 373, n. 
Solferino (sol-fa-ree'no) , battle of, 712. 
Solomon, k. of the Hebrews, 65, 66. 
Solon, laws and reforms of, 120-122. 
Solyman (sol'i-man) the Magnificent, 

531. 

Sophia, electress of Hanover, 629. 

Soph'ists, the, 205, 206. 

Soph'o-cles, 193, 194. 

Soudanese, revolt against the khedive, 
728. 

Spac-te'ri-a, 150. 

Spain, conquest of, by Saracens, 398; 
union of Castile and Aragon, 498; 
conquest of Granada, 499; the In- 
quisition in, 500 ; Spanish coloni- 
zation in the New World, 517; as- 
cendency of, under Charles V. and 
Philip II., 530-538; her rapid de- 
chne, 538; revolt of her American 
colonies, 538, n. ; in the war of the 
Spanish Succession, 596, 



756 



INDEX. 



Spanish Fury, the, 567. 

Spanish Succession, war of the, 596, 
597, 628. 

Sparta, early history of, 1 1 2-1 1 7 ; op- 
poses the Athenian democracy, 
124. 

Spar'ta-cus, 285, 286. 

Spartan supremacy, 155, 156. 

Spartans, the. See Sparta. 

Spar'ti-a'tae. See Spartans. 

Spenser, Edmund, 562, n. 

Sphinx, great Egyptian, 34. 

Spires, second diet of, 525. 

Spor'a-des, the, 88. 

Spu-rin'na, Roman astrologer, 299, 

Sta-gi'ra, 209. 

Stamford Bridge, battle of, 434, 

Stanislaus Lesczinski (lesh-chin'shee), 
638. 

Star Chamber, the, 607, n. 

States-General of France, first meet- 
ing of, 494; no meeting under 
Louis XIV., 592; meeting of, in 
1789,650, 651; changed into the 
National Assembly, 651. 

Steamship, ocean, navigation, 729. 

Stephen of Blois (blwa), 436, n. 

Stil'i-cho, 339, 341. 

Stoics, the, 210, 211. 

Strel'it-zes, 635. 

Stuart, house of. See Table of Con- 
tents. 

Stuart, Henry (Lord Darnley), 557. 

Stuart, Mary, 557, 558. 

Su'dras, 8, ii. 

Sue'vi, 341; conversion of, 378. 

Suez Canal, 727, 728, 

Suf'fe-teg, Carthaginian magistrates, 

247- 
Sulla, fights under Marius in Africa, 

278; secures command of Mithri- 

datic expedition, 281; brings war 

to a close, 282, 283; proscriptions 

of, 283, 284. 

Su'ni-um, 179, n. 

Sun'nites, 395, n. 

Supremacy, act of, 546, 555. 

Supreme Being, worship of, set up 
by Robespierre, 664. 

Surajah Dowlah (siir-a'jah dow'lah), 
724. 

Surat (soo-rat'), 603. 



Su'sa, 42, 78. 

Sut-tee', 12, n. 

Sweden, in Thirty Years' War, 583- 
586; receives lands in Germany, 
587; under Charles XIL, 636, 637, 
638. 

Swift, Jonathan, 629. 

Swiss Guards, massacre of the, 656. 

Sy-a'gri-us, 374. 

Syb'a-ris, in. 

Syracuse, in, 152, 262. 

Tabor, Mount, battle of, 670, n. 

Tac'i-tus, the historian, 356. 

Tac'i-tus, Roman emp., 329. 

Ta'gus, the, 400. 

Tal'mud, 69. 

Tam'er-lane, 461. 

Tancred, 442, 443. 

Tao, 17. 

Taoism (ta'o-ism), 17. 

Ta-ren'tum, in, 244, 245. 

Tar-pe'i-a (-ya), 242, n. 

Tar-pe'i-an Rock, 242, n. 

Tar-quin'i-us Priscus, 225; Superbus, 
225, 227. 

Tarquins, the, Rome under, 226; ex- 
pulsion from Rome, 227. 

Tar'ta-rus, loi. 

Te'ge-a, 117. 

Tel'a-mon, battle near, 255. 

Telegraph, 729, 730. 

Te-lem'a-ehus, 340, 

Tell, William, 506. 

Tem'pe, vale of, 87. 

Templars, order of the, origin, 443, n. 

Ten Thousand Greeks, the, expedi- 
tion of, 156. 

Ten Tribes, the, captivity of, 48. 

Ter'ence, 354. 

Test Act, 621. 

Tetzel, 521, 522. 

Teu'to-nes, the, 278, 279. 

Teutonic knights, order of, origin, ■ 

443- 
Teutons, the, their character, 368, 
369; kingdoms established by, 371- 
376; conversion of, 377-384; fu- 
sion with the Latins, 385-388; 
legislation of, 386; ordeals among, 

387, 388. 
Tha'les, 203, n. 



INDEX. 



757 



Thap'sus, battle of, 297. 

Theatre, the, among the Greeks, 217, 

218. 
Theatre of Dionysus, at Athens, 182. 
Theban supremacy, 156-158. 
Thebes, in Egypt, 20; royal tombs 

at, 31. 
Thebes, in Greece, 87; destroyed by 

Alexander, 161, 162. 
The-mis'to-cles, in Persian War, 

128-130; naval policy of, 136; 

his ostracism, 137; as an orator, 

199. 
The-oc'ri-tus, 202. 
The-od'o-ric, k. of the Visigoths, 

371- 

The 'o- do' si-US the Great, 337, ^iZ^- 

Ther'mse, Roman, 352, 353. 

Ther-mop'y-lae, battle of, 132, 133. 

The'seus, 94, 118. 

Thespians, at Thermopylae, 133. 

Thespis, 193. 

Thes'sa-ly, 87. 

Thiers (te-8r'), 691. 

Thirty-nine articles, 551. 

Thirty tyrants, 328. 

Thirty Years' War, 582-589. 

Thor, 379. 

Thoth'mes II,, 22. 

Thrace, made part of the Persian 

Empire, 80; kingdom of, 171. 
Thucydides (thu-sid'i-dez), 197, 198. 
Tiberine Republic, established, 670 ; 

abolished, 671. 
Ti-be'ri-us, Roman emp., 309, 310. 
Ti'bur, 244, 329. 
Ti-ci'-nus, battle of the, 260. 
Tiers Etat (te-erz' a'ta'), 651. 
Tig'lath-i-nin', 43, 58. 
Tig'lath-Pi-le'ser L, 48; II., 48. 
Tigris, valley of the, 40. 
Tilly (til'le), 583, 584. 
Tilsit, treaty of, 678. 
Ti'mon, the Athenian misanthrope, 

Titian (tish'an), 511, n. 

Tit'i-es, 224. 

Titus, Roman emp., 315-317. 

Tobacco, introduced into England, 

561. 
Todleben (tot'la-ben), 695. 
To-le'do, 398. 



Tory. — This term probably comes 
from the Irish word toree (give 
me), the command of the robber. 
Before pressed into political ser- 
vice, it was applied to the half- 
civilized natives of certain districts 
in Ireland. 

Tory, origin of T. party, 621. 

Tostig, 434. 

Toulon (too-lon'), 665. 

Tournament, 431. 

Tours (toor), battle of, 398. 

Tower of London, 605. 

Towns, growth of, 464; relations of, 
to the feudal lords, 464. 

Traf'al-gar', battle of, 678. 

Trajan, Roman emp., 318-321. 

Transmigration of souls, among the 
Brahmans, 10, 1 1 ; among the 
Egyptians, 30, 31. 

Tras-i-me'nus, Lake, battle of, 260. 

Tre'bi-a, battle of the, 260. 

Tri-bo'ni-an, 358. 

Tribunes, Roman, 234, 235; military 
tribunes, 238. 

Triple iVlliance, the, 593. 

Tri-um'vi-rate, First, 291; Second, 
300-302, 303. 

Trojan War, the, 94-96. 

Troubadours(troo'ba-doors'),496,497. 

Trouveurs, 497. 

Troy. See Ilios. 

Troyes (trwa), treaty of, 486. 

Truceless War, the, 256. 

True Cross, the, 390, 396. 

Tudor, house of, England under, 539- 
562; names of Tudor sovereigns, 
539..n. 

Tuileries, palace of the, 653. 

Tul'lus Hos-til'i-us, 225. 

Tunis, 532, n. 

Turanian peoples, 2, 3. 

Turgot (tiir'go'), 650. 

Tu'rin, 713. 

Turks, embrace jMohammedanism, 
396; the Seljuks, 460; Ottoman 
T., empire of, founded, 461-463; 
they capture Constantinople, 462; 
check to their arms, 463; defeated 
at Lepanto, 537; besiege Vienna, 
538, n. I. See Russo- Turkish 
Wars, 



758 



INDEX. 



Twelve tables of Roman law, 236, 237. 

Tyburn, 618. 

Ty'phon. See Set. 

Tyrants, Greek, 109, no. 

Tyre, captured by Nebuchadnezzar, 

59; history of, 70, 71; siege of, by 

Alexander, 163. 
Tyr-tse'us, 116, 117. 
Tzar. See Czar. 

Ul'fi-las, 377. 

Ulm (Ger. oolm), battle of, 677. 

U-lys'ses. See Odysseus. 

Um'bri-a, 222. 

Uniformity, acts to secure, 551; act 

of, 555» 556. 
Union, Customs, 701. 
Universities, in the Middle Ages, 472. 
Ur, of the -Ghaldees, 63. 
U'ti-ca, 72. 
Utrecht (u'trekt), union of, 567; 

treaty of, 597. 

Va'lens, Roman emp., 335, 336. 

Val'en-tin'i-an, Roman emp., 335,336. 

Valerian, Roman emp., 328, n. 

Va-le'ri-us, Pub'li-us, 232. 

Valmy, battle of, 657. 

Valois (val'wa'), house of, 494, n.; 
history of France under Valois sov- 
ereigns, 494-496. 

Valois .Orleans, house of, 572, n. 

Vandals, establish kingdom in North 
Africa, 344; sack Rome, 346; con- 
version of, 378. 

Va'rus, defeated by Hermann, 308. 

Vasco da Gama (vas'ko da ga'ma), 

514, 515- 

Vassey, massacre of, 574. 

Vat'i-can, council of the, 714. 

Vaudois (vo-dwa'), 533. 

Ve'das, 9. 

Veil (ve'yi), siege of, 238, 239. 

Vendee (von'da'), 658. 

Vendidad, the, 83. 

Ven'e-ti, the, 346. ^ 

Ve-ne'ti-a, 222. 

Venice, takes part in the fourth cru- 
sade, 446; general sketch of its 
history, 466, 467; becomes part of 
the kingdom of Italy, 713. 

Ver-cel'lse, battle of, 279. 



Ver'cin-get'o-rix, 292. 

Ver'diin', treaty of, 408. 

Ve-ro'na, battle at, 339. 

Ver'res, abuses of, 286, 287. 

Versailles (ver-salz'), 648, 

Vespasian (ves-pa'zhi-an), Roman 
emp., 314, 315. 

Ves'ta, the worship of, 228. 

Victor Emmanuel I., k. of Sardinia, 
709; II., 71 1; takes possession of 
Rome, 714; his death, 714, n. 

Victor Hugo, 667. 

Vienna, congress of, 685, 686; reor- 
ganization of Germany by, 700; of 
Italy, 708. 

Vil'leins, 425. 

Vin'do-bo'na, 323. 

Vineland, 411. 

Virgil, 354. 

Virginia, origin of name, 560. 

Visigoths, the, 336, 337; establish 
kingdom in Gaul and Spain, 344, 

372- 
Vi-tel'li-us, Roman emp., 313. 
Vol'ga, 638. 
Volscians, the, 235. 
Voltaire (vol-ter'), 649. 
Vul'gate, 358, n. 

Wafels, battle of, 506. 
Wa'gram, battle of, 680. 
Waiblings. See Ghibellines. 
Wal-den'ses. See Vaudois. 
Waldo, Peter, 533, n. 
Wales, conquest of, 481. 
Wallenstein (wol'en-stin), first ap- 
pearance in Thirty Years' War, 583; 

removed from his command, 583; 

restored, 585; his assassination, 

586. 
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 555. 
Walter the Penniless, 441. 
Warsaw, grand duchy of, 679. 
Waterloo, 687, 688. 
Welfs. See Gtielphs. 
Wellesley (welz'le). Sir Arthur (d. of 

Wellington), in Spain, 680. 
Wentworth, Thomas, 607, 609. 
Wesley, John, 721, n. 
Western Empire (Teutonic). See 

Charlemagne and the Holy Roman 

Empire. 



INDEX. 



759 



West-pha'li-a, treaty of, 586-589; 
kingdom of, 679. 

Whig. — The origin of this word is a 
little uncertain; some get it from 
the initial letters of the phrase, 
" We hope in God," which was the 
motto of some of the early mem- 
bers of the party ; others from zvhey, 
the drink of the Scotch covenanters. 

Whigs, origin of W. party, 621. 

Whitby, council of, 380. 

Whitefield (hwit'field),George,72i, n. 

Wilfred, 380. 

William I., the Conqueror, k. of Eng- 
land, 434-436; II., the Red, 436, n. 

William III., k. of England, his part 
in the Revolution of 1688, 623, 
624; reign, 626-628. 

William I., k. of Prussia, 703; be- 
comes emp. of the New German 
Empire, 707. 

William I., the Silent. See Orange, 
William of. 

Winfred. See St. Boniface. 

Winkelried ( wink 'el-reet), Arnold of, 
506. 

Witan, the, 433. 

Witikind (wit'i-kind), 406. 

Woden, 379. 

Wolfe, Major-General, 631. 

Wolseley, Lord, in Egypt, 728. 

Wolsey, Cardinal, 543, 545. 

Woman, social position of, among 
the Greeks, 216, 217, 

Worcester (woos'ter), battle of, 6 1 4, 



Worms, diet of, 523, 524. 
Wiir'tem-burg, duchy of, in Thirty 

Years' War, 588. 
Wycliffe (wik'lif), 490, 491. 

Xan-thip'pe, 206. 
Xavier (zav'i-er), Francis, 528. 
Xen'o-phon, 156, 198. 
Xeres (ha-res'), battle of, 398. 
Xerxes (zerks'es) I., k. of Persia, 80, 
81. 

York, d. of, 621, 

York, house of, 479, n.; badge of, 

488. '^^^ Roses, Wars of the. 
Yuste (yoos'ta), monastery of, 534, 

Zaandam (zan'dam'), 635. 

Za'gros Mountains, 59, 60. 

Za'ma, battle of, 264, 265. 

Zealand, 567, 568. 

Zed'e-ki'ah, k. of Judah, 68. 

Ze'la, battle of, 296. 

Zend'a-ves'ta, the, 83. 

Ze'no, 210. 

Ze'no, Roman emp. in the East, 348. 

Ze-no'bi-a, 329. 

Zeus, 102; oracles of, 104, 105. 

Zeuxis (zuks'iss), 189. 

Zorn'dorf, battle of, 646. 

Zo-ro-as'ter, 83. 

Zoroastrianism, 83, 84. 

Zut'phen, siege of, 570. 

Zwingle, Ulrich (zwing'gl, ool'rik), 

525- 



HISTORY. 



Outlines of Mediceval and Modern History. 

By P. V. N. Myers, A.M., President of Belmont College, Oliio; Authoi 
of Outlines of Ancient History, and Remains of Lost Empires. 12mo, 
Half Morocco, xli + 740 pages. With colored maps, reproduced, by 
permission, from Freeman's Historical Atlas. Mailing Price, $1.65; 
for introduction, $1.50. Allowance for a book in exchange, 40 cents. 

npHIS work aims to blend in a single narrative accounts of the 
social, political, literary, intellectual, and religious 
developments of the peoples of mediaeval and modern 
times, — to give in simple outline the story of civilization since 
the meeting, in the fifth century of our era, of Latin and Teuton 
upon the soil of the Roman Empire in the West- The author's 
conception of History, based on the dBfinitions of Ueberweg, that 
it is the unfolding of the essence of spirit, affords the key-note to 
the work. Its aim is to deal with the essential elements, not the 
accidental features, of the life of the race. 

Unity and cohesion are secured by grouping facts according to 
the principles of historic development, and while the analysis 
is rigid and scientific, the narrative will be found clear, continuous, 
interesting, and suggestive. 



W. F. Allen, Prof, of History, 
University of Wisconsin : Mr. Myers' 
book seems to me to be a work of 
high excellence, and to give a re- 
markably clear and vivid picture of 
mediaeval history. 

E. B. Andrews, Prof, of History 
and Political Economy, Brown Uni- 
versity, Providence, R.I. : It seems 
certain to take its place as one of the 
most serviceable books of its kind 
before the school and college public. 
U^an. 6, 1887.) 



Geo. W. Knight, Prof, of History ^ 
Ohio State University : The author 
seems to have gotten hold of the 
active principle, the leading motives 
and tendencies of each age ; to have 
taken a comprehensive view of the 
development of man's ideas, of na- 
tions, and of governments. Then he 
has grouped the various events in 
such a way as will bring clearly to 
view these different phases of the 
world-development without ignoring 
what may be called the collateraJ 
events. 



HISTORY. Ill 

Ancient History for Colleges and High Schools, 

Part I. THE EASTERN NATIONS AND GREECE. By P. V. N. Myers, 

President of Belmont College, Ohio. 12mo. Cloth, x + 369 pages, with 
illustrations and colored maps. 

Until Allen's Rome is ready, the publishers will bind with this hook the 
history of Rome from Myers' Ancient History, Introduction Price, $1.40. 

npHIS is a revision and expansion of the corresponding part of 
the author's Outlines of Ancient History. It embraces the his- 
tory of the Egyptians, Assyrio-Babylonians, Hebrews, Phoenicians^ 
Lydians, Medes and Persians, and Greeks. 

The chapters relating to the Eastern nations have been written 
in the light of the most recent revelations of the monuments of 
Egypt and Babylonia. The influence of Oriental civilization upon 
the later development of the Western peoples has been fully indi- 
cated. It is shown that before the East gave a religion to the 
West it had imparted many primary elements of art and general 
culture. This lends a sort of epic unity to series of events and 
historic developments too often regarded as fragmentary and un- 
related, and invests the history of the old civilizations of the 
Orient with fresh interest and instruction. 

In tracing the growth of Greek civilization, while the value of 
the germs of culture which the Greeks received from the older 
nations of the East is strongly insisted upon, still it is admitted 
that the determining factor in the wonderful Greek development 
"was the peculiar genius of the Greek race itself. 

The w'ork is furnished with chronological summaries, colored 
maps, and numerous illustrations drawn from the most authentic 
sources. 

For Part II., Rome, by Prof. W. F. Allen, see Announcements. 

Historia do Brazil. 

Resume da Historia do Brazil, para uso das escolas primarias Brazileiras. 
Pela Frofessora Maria G. L. db Andrade. 12mo. Cloth, x + 231 
pages. Illustrated. Mailing price, 85 cents ; for introduction, 75 cents. 

rPHIS is a history of Brazil from the earliest times to the year 
1848, written in the Portuguese language. It is believed to be 
the best work of its kind extant, and would be found also an exceJ- 
lent reading book for students of Portuguese. 



112 



HISTORY. 



Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. 

From the Battle of Adrianople to the death of Charlemagne (a.d. 
378-814). By Ephraim Emerton, Professor of History in Harvard Uni- 
versity. 12mo. Cloth, xviii + 268 pages. Mailing Price, $1.25 ; for 
introduction, $1.12. 

rPHIS work aims to give, in simple narrative form, an account of 
the settlement of the Germanic peoples on Roman soil, the 
gradual rise of the Frankish supremacy, the growth of the Chris- 
tian Church and its expression in the monastic life and in the 
Roman Papacy, and finally the culmination of all in the Empire of 
Charlemagne. The text is supplemented with maps, lists of works 
for reference, accounts of the contemporaneous material on which 
the narrative is based, and suggestions to teachers upon topics and 
methods of special study. 

Contents : Chapter I. The Romans to a.d. 375. H. The Two Races. 
in. The Breaking of the Frontier by the Visigoths. IV. Vandals and 
Burgundians. V. Invasion of the Huns. VI. The Germans in Italy. 
VII. The Franks to 638. VIII. Germanic Ideas of Law. IX. Rise of the 
Christian Church, X. Franks and Mohammedans. Dagobert to Charles 
Martel. XI. The Monks of the West. XII. The Franks from Charles 
Martel to Charlemagne. XIII. Charlemagne King of the Franks. 
XIV. Foundation of the Mediaeval Empire. XV. The Beginnings of the 
Feudal System. 



George P. Fisher, Prof, of Eccle- 
siastical History, Yale College, Neio 
Haven, Conn.: It is an admirable 
guide to both teachers and pupils 
in the tangled period of which it 
treats. The work is the fruit of dil- 
igent investigation ; it is concise, but, 
at the same time, lucid and interest- 
ing. 

Anson D. Morse, Prof, of History 
and Political Economy, Amherst 
College: It is excellent, and I shall 
recommend it to my classes. 

Arthur L. Perry, Prof, of History, 
Williams College: He is skilful in 
condensing the story; always selects 
the things and dates most worthy to 
be remembered ; and has the art of 
weaving all into a pleasant and 
helpful narrative. 



P. V. N. Myers, President Belmont 
College, Ohio : I have read the book 
with great interest. It is a work of 
rare historical insight. . . . The 
book is indispensable to any student 
of the history of the Mediaeval Ages. 

Edward G, Bourne, Prof, of His- 
tory, Adelbert College, Cleveland, 
Ohio: I shall recommend it to our 
students, and shall probably use it 
as a text-book with the next class 
taking up the period. 

George P. Garrison, Prof, of His- 
tory, University of Texas, Austin, 
Tex. : It is to be recommended espec- 
ially for an enumeration of author- 
ities that will help the student who 
is beginning to investigate for him- 
self, for clearness of style, and for 
valuable maps. 



HISTOEYo 113 

The Leading Facts of English History. 

By D. H. Montgomery. New edition. Rewritten and enlarged, with 
Maps and Tables. 12mo. Cloth. 448 pages. Mailing Price, $1.25. 
Introduction Price, $1.12; Allowance for old book. 35 cents. 

rr^HE former edition has Ueen rewritten, as it had become evi= 
dent that a work on the same plan, but more comprehensive, 
and better suited to prevailing courses and methods of class-work, 
would be still more heartily welcomed. 

Important events are treated with greater fulness, and the rela- 
tion of English History to that of Europe and the world is carefully 
shown. References for further study are added. 

The text is in short paragraphs, each with a topical heading in 
bold type for the student's use. The headings may be made to 
serve the purpose of questions. By simply passing them over, the 
reader has a clear, continuous narrative. 

The treatment of each reign is closed with a brief summary of 
its principal points. Likewise, at the end of each period there is a 
section showing the condition of the country, and its progress in 
Government, Religion, Military Affairs, Learning and Art, General 
Industry, Manners and Customs. These summaries will be found 
of the greatest value for reference, review, and fuller study ; but 
when the book is used for a brief course, or for general reading, 
they may be omitted. 

No pains have been spared to make the execution of the work 
equal to its plan. Vivid touches here and there betray the author's 
mastery of details. Thorough investigation has been made of all 
points where there was reason to doubt traditional statements. The 
proof-sheets have been carefully read by two experienced high- 
school teachers, and also by two college professors of history. 

The text is illustrated with fourteen maps, and supplemented 
with full genealogical and chronological tables. 

It is believed that this book will be acknowledged superior — 

1. In interest. 2. In accuracy. 

3. In judicious selection of matter. 

4. In conciseness combined with adequacy. 

5. In philosophical insight free from speculation or theorizing. 

6. In completeness. 

7. In availability as a practical class-room book. 



114 



HISTORY. 



Send for th.e special circular, from wliicli are taken 
tlie foUow^ing Representative Opinions : — 



Hon. E. J. Phelps, United States 
Minister to Great Britain : In my 
opiuion, the author has done ex- 
tremely well a much-needed work, 
in presenting in so terse, clear, and 
available form the princij)al points 
in that greatest of all histories, the 
common property and most useful 
study of the English-speaking race. 

Professor Goldwin Smith: The 

book, besides being very attractive 
in aj)pearance, seems to be very suit- 
able for the purpose in view, viz., to 
present school pu^Dils with a clear 
and intelligent idea of the main facts 
of English history in connection with 
the social and industrial development 
of the nation. 

E. B. Andrews, Prof, of History, 
Broion University : I do not remem- 
ber to have seen any book before 
which sets forth the leading facts of 
English History so succinctly, and 
at the same time so interestingly 
and clearly. 

A. L. Perry, Prof, of Political 
Economy, Williams College : I have 
never seen anything at all equal to 
it for the niche it was intended to fill. 

J. B. Clark, Prof, of History, Smith 
College: 1 especially like its intro- 
duction of matter relating to the life 
of the people, in a way that seems to 
make the narrative less dry, rather 
than more so, as so often happens. 

Jas. F. Colby, Prof, of Law and 

Political Science, Dartmouth Col- 
lege : Its title is a true description of 
its contents. Its author shows sense 
of proportion, and wisely gives prom- 
inence to economic facts and the 
development of constitutional prin- 
ciples. (Oc^. 27, 1887.) 

P. v. N. Myers, Pres. of Belmont 
College : The book was an admirable 



one as first issued, but the careful 
revision and the addition of maps and 
tables have added greatly to its value. 
In my judgment it is by far the best 
English History for school-room use 
now before the public. 

W. F. Allen, Prof, of History, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, Madison : As 
I have said in relation to the earlier 
edition, the author has succeeded in 
an unusual degree in telling the story 
of English History in an interesting 
and suggestive manner, keeping clear 
of the prevailing fault of loading his 
pages with unessential names and 
dates. {Nov. 22, 1887.) 

F. B. Palmer, Principal of State 
Normal School, Fredonia, N.Y.: I 
have not examined anything that 
seems to me equal to it for a class in 
English History. 

John Fiske, Prof, of History, 
Washington University: It seems 
to me excellent. 

Francis A. Cooke, Teacher of 
History, Penn Charter School, Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. : My verdict on Mont- 
gomery's History is unqualified 
approval. I have not seen a text- 
book upon English History so well 
adapted to school use. 

C. B. Gilbert, Prin. of High School, 
St. Paul, Minn. : In many respects I 
consider it the best text-book on 
English History for high schools that 
I have seen. Its arrangement is ex- 
cellent, its style clear and very at- 
tractive. (Nov. 22, 1887.) 

Frank E. Plummer, Priii. of High 
School, Des Moines, la. : I examined 
it very carefully, and pronounce it 
the best English History for high- 
school use of any with which I am 
familiar. (iV^o v. 29, 1887.) 



HISTORY. 115 

The Leading Facts of French History. 

By D. H. Montgomery, Author of The Leading Facts of English HiS" 
tory, English History Reader, etc. 12mo. Cloth, v + 321 pages, with 
hlack and colored maps, and full tables. Mailing Price, ; for in- 

troduction, 

n^HE object of this volume is to present, within the moderate 
compass of two hundred and ninety-two pages, the most im- 
portant events of the history of France, selected, arranged, and 
treated according to the soundest principles of historical study, 
and set forth in a clear and attractive narrative. 

The work is based on the highest French authorities, — Guizot, 
Rambaud, Martin, and Duruy, — but all points demanding special 
consideration have been carefully compared with the views of the 
best English writers on France. 

The general plan of treatment is practically the same as that 
pursued in the author's Leading Facts of English History. The 
attention of teachers is invited to the following summary : — 

The respective influences of the Celtic race, and of the Roman and 
the German conquest and occupation of Gaul are clearly shown. 

Charlemagne's work and the subsequent growth of feudal insti- 
stutions are next considered. 

The breaking up of the feudal system, with the gradual consoli- 
dation of the provinces into one kingdom, and the development of 
the sentiment of nationality, are traced and illustrated. 

The growth of the absolutism of the crown, the interesting and 
important relations of France to America, and the causes of the 
French Revolution, are fully presented. 

The career of Napoleon and its effects on France and Europe 
are carefully examined. 

Finally, a sketch is given of the stages of the historical progress 
of France in connection with the state of the Republic to-day. 

The work is illustrated with fourteen Maps and complete Gene- 
alogical and Chronological Tables. It is also furnished with 
explanatory foot-notes where they seem to be required. Each 
section of the history is followed by a brief summary of the ground 
gone over. 

As the work had not been published when this Catalogue went 
to press, it was not possible to present testimonials. 



116 HISTORYo 

English History Reader. 

By D, H. Montgomery. 12mo. Cloth, xxxiv + 254 pages, with » 
colored map. Mailing Price, 85 cents; for introduction, 75 cents. 

rpHIS is the first edition of Montgomery's Leading Facts of Eng- 
lish Histoj^y. The book has clearly demonstrated its value for 
reading pui'poses, and the price has been reduced to make it gen- 
erally available for this use. 



ous, and the references seem to me 
very well selected. I cordially rec- 
ommend it to all students and teach- 
ers of English history. 
{Jan. 3, 1886.) 



W. P. Atkinson, Prof, of English 
and History, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, Boston: It is that 
uncommon kind of book, a readable 
short sketch. It is fresh and vigor- 

Pilgrims and Puritans. 

By Miss N. Moore. Square 16mo. Cloth, viii + 197 pages. Illustrated. 
Mailing Price, 70 cents ; for introduction, 60 cents. 

T^HIS is a book of easy reading, containing sketches of the early 
days of Massachusetts, — Massachusetts Indians, the Pilgrims 
of Plymouth, English Boston, William BlacJcstone, John WintJirop, 
Extracts from Wood'^s New England's Prosj)ect, with notes and 
appendix. 

It is intended for children who have not yet begun or are just 
beginning the study of United States History, and to supplement 
or prepare the w^ay for the ordinary text-book. It has already 
been used by children under ten years of age. It is provided with 
maps and illustrations. 

Tlie Reader's Guide to Englisfi History. 

By William Francis Allen, A.M., Professor in the University of 
Wisconsin. Long 8vo. Paper. 50 pages. Mailing Price, 30 cents ; 
Introduction, 25 cents. The Supplement can be had separately; Mailing 
Price, 10 cents. 

T^HE arrangement is that of four parallel columns upon two 
opposite pages : the first column giving the English sovereigns ; 
the second, histories, biographies, and essays; the third, novels, 
poems, and dramas illustrating that period of English history ; 
the fourth, the same class of works, illustrating contemporary 
history . 



HISTORY. 



117 



Washington and His Country. 

By AVashington Irving and John Fiske. 654 pages, including 13 maps. 
12mo. Cloth: Mailing price, $1.10; for introduction, $1.00. Boards: 85 
and 75 cents. QUESTIONS have been prepared to facilitate the use of 
the work as a text-book of United States history. Paper. 88 pages. 
Introduction price, 15 cents. 

rpHIS consists of Irving's Life of AVashington, judiciously abridged 
by John Fiske, and supplemented with an Introduction and a 
Continuation by Mr. Fiske that make the work in effect a His- 
tory of the United States, It is anticipated that this History 
will be cordially welcomed and will exert a great influence upon 
present methods and courses of study. It will be found to com- 
bine many peculiar excellences. 

1 . History is taught through biography. This secures the great- 
est interest, unity, and clearness, and, at the same time, the greatest 
moral value. 

2. The history is presented in a readable outline. The salient 
points are fully and vividly set forth, and cannot fail to impress 
the memory and the imagination. 

3, The pupil has before him in this book the thought and lan- 
guage of an acknowledged master of English. 

4, The abridging and the supplementing have been done by one 
exceptionally competent. The Introduction and the Continuation 
are masterly sketches, unequalled by anything hitherto published. 

Thus, while acquiring a knowledge of facts and events, the pupil 
is gaining a love for history and literature, moulding his diction by 
a classic author, and ennobling his character by contemplating one 
of the grandest types of humanity. There will be less of mechani- 
cal study and more of the real, less committing to memory of 
trivial facts, and a firmer grasp of the important ones. 



W, E, Buck, Supt, of Schools, 
Manchester , N.H. : I cannot think 
of another book so desirable for col- 
lateral reading by pupils studying 
history in the common schools. 

E. H. Sussell, Prin. of Normal 
School, Worcester, Mass. : I have 
ordered a supply for class use. It 
seems to me the most noteworthy 
book that has appeared in this field 



for years. I recommend it right and 
left without reserve. 

Thomas M. Balliet, Supt. of 
Schools, Springfield, Mass. : It can 
be used as a text-book on U. S. 
History; and as a book for supple- 
mentary reading on the subject, I 
don't know of anything else equal 
to it. 
(Jan. 20, 1888.) 



HISTORY. 



119 



A Guide to the Study of the History and the 

Const/fut/'on of the United States. 

By W1LI.1AM W. Rupert, Superintendent of Schools, Pottstown, Pa. 
12mo. Cloth. 130 pages. Mailing Price, 75 cts. ; for introduction, 70 cts. 

npHE first part of this work contains a carefully arranged list 
of topics on United States History. Many of these are sub- 
divided for the purpose of directijig the student along a profitable 
line of investigation. Many books which throw light upon and 
add interest to the topics, are named in immediate connection with 
them. The address of the publishing house and the price of the 
book are given in every case. Students are thus introduced to 
good, wholesome literature. The last half of the work is devoted 
to simple, attractive, yet accurate explanations of all the important 
provisions of the Constitution. The '"Guide" is designed to be 
used as a supplementary work in connection with any text-book on 
United States History. 



C. F. P. Bancroft, Prin. of Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass. : The topics 
and references for the study of United 
States History, and the brief, clear 
explanations of the bearing of the 
various provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, make a useful book which I 
think will prove a great help to 
teachers and pupils, and assist in the 
good work of preparing our young 
people for intelligent and patriotic 
citizenship. (Dec. 15, 1888.) 

D. W. Abercrombie, Prin. of Wor- 
cester Academy, Worcester, Mass. : 
It seems to possess salient points of 
usefulness, especially in that part 
which relates to the United States 
Constitution. (Oct. 11, 1888.) 

T. M. Balliet, Supt. of Schools, 
Springfield, Mass.: I like the book. 
It is going to be of great value and 
assistance to teachers. The author's 
comments on the Constitution are 
remarkably clear, and he succeeds in 
investing the subject with interest. 
{Oct. 11, 1888.) 



George M. Steele, Prin. of Wes- 

leyan Acadepiy, Wilbraham, Mass. : 
The topical method in which the stu- 
dent is compelled to investigate and 
hunt up information and authority, 
is perhaps by far the most profitable 
method of historical study. I have 
nothing but praise for that part of 
the book which is devoted to the 
Constitution. (Oct. 19, 1888.) 

C. 0. Knepper, Prof, of History, 
Heidelberg College, Tiffin, 0.: Ihave 
examined it, and like it so well that 
I have urged the principal of our 
Preparatory Department to adopt it 
as a review and supplement to the 
study of United States History. 
(Jan. 25, 1889.) 

J. "W. Anderson, Sn2}t. of Schools, 
San Francisco, Cal. : I have formed 
so favorable an impression of it that I 
have embraced every opportunity to 
recommend it to the teachers of our 
schools. It is particularly excellent 
so far as the Constitution is con- 
cerned. (Feb. 11, 1889.) 



'S. 



120 



HISTORY. 



sl^ 

'"^--S 



Ccesar's Army. 

A study of the military art of the Romans in the last days of the Re- 
public. By Harry Pratt Judson, Professor of History, University of 
Minnesota. With illustrations and colored maps. 12mo, Cloth, x + 108 
pages. Mailing price, $1.10 ; to teachers and for introduction, $1.00. 

rPHIS little book is an attempt to reconstruct Caesar's Army so 
as to give a clear idea of its composition and evolutions. It is 
hoped that students of Csssar's writings and students of military 
science alike may find interest in such a study. 

The Commentaries of CsRsar are the story of his wars. They 
are military history. It is true that they were intended largely for 
civilian readers at Rome. Still, they imply throughout a certain 
amount of military knowledge that all Roman citizens were sup- 
posed to have. The modern student can hardly be said to read 
understandingiy, unless the text conveys to his mind the same 
idea that it conveyed to the intelligent Roman reader to whom 
Caesar addressed it. 



C. F. P. Bancroft, Prin. of Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass. : It makes 
the intelligent reading of Caesar pos- 
sible, and is itself worthy of inde- 
pendent study. (Se2:)t. 5, 1888.) 

Ray Greene Huling, Prin. of 
High School, New Bedford, Mass. : 



It is, I believe, the best as well as 
the latest presentation of the mili- 
tary art in Caesar's time. I cannot 
conceive of a teacher of classes in 
this author who will not obtain the 
book as soon as he knows how ser- 
viceable it is. {Ju7ie 6, 1888.) 



Topics in Ancient History. 

Arranged for use in Mt. Holyoke Seminary and College. By Clara W. 
Wood, Professor of History. Square 12mo. Paper. 45 pages. Mailing 
price, 20 cents ; for introduction, 15 cents. 

nPHE object of this little work is to suggest and help topical 
study. The alternate pages of the book are devoted to a series 
of illustrative quotations, aiming to show that the best literature 
is full of the condensed philosophy of history. 

Halsey's Genealogical and Clironological Cfiart 

of the Rulers of England, Scotland, France, Germany, and Spain. 

By C. S. Halsey, Principal of Schenectady (N.Y.) Classical School. 
Revised edition, brought down to 1884. Printed on tough rope paper. 
33 X 50 inches. Introduction and Mailing price, 25 cents. 



i-RSJa'17 



V^ 



H- 



-1^ 



\\ 



s'-i 



